Battle of the Ports

[Team Andromeda]

This and Legend of Kage used to be the two games our local swimming pool had.

It used to be the game, along with Wonderboy that my local chipshop had . In the fab days when the local cafe and chippy had Arcade games in them .

[S3M]

Capcom classic this week with 1942

Starting with the first entry always a good choice. Pity Capcom have never down a complete collection of the whole series.

Have a soft spot for 1942, but it's a toss up between 1941:CA & 19XX for best outing 1944 was decent, but not great. 1943 and Kai are good, but have aged.

If my memory serves me well 1942 was the one you found in most arcades in the 90s never once saw 19XX and 1944, both must have flopped.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Pity Capcom have never down a complete collection of the whole series.

I agree. I'd definitely purchase a complete 19XX compilation.

It's worth remembering that 1941: CA, 1942, 1943 Midway and Kai did appear on the Capcom Classics Collection back in 2005/2006, but it is somewhat baffling that the other games in the franchise haven't been ported elsewhere since.

[Yakumo]

Now it's cold, dark and wet for many parts of the world. So why not cheer yourself up with some summer fun! Today we are taking a look at Cool Spot.

[Leon Retro]

I remember thinking Cool Spot looked nice on the SNES, but there was something very bland about the overall design that put me off. It's certainly a polished game though and plays well.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I remember renting Cool Spot back in the day for my MD. I didn't think much of it beyond the nice animation. I had no idea he had received so many (mostly awful) ports. The frame rate in the Master System and Amiga versions is just pitiful. How could any dev release a game in such a state? The A1200 had two 4-bit playfields, but the port is weirdly using a 1-bit second playfield, which is just bizarre. What a car crash.

[samanosuke]

The Amiga version looks awful for an A500, never mind A1200. The Alien3 Amiga port was much better and not a million miles off the MD version, marred only by being forced to choose between SFX and BGM. Hated that so many Amiga games did that... why not lose a channel of music and go down to three when a sound effect is played? I’ll tell you why - laziness!

[Leon Retro]

Hated that so many Amiga games did that... why not lose a channel of music and go down to three when a sound effect is played? I’ll tell you why - laziness!

Clever people worked around the limited sound channels quite early on with games like Hybris and Battle Squadron, and also Chris Huelsbeck with the Turrican games.

So what I really hated about having to choose between 'music or sfx' in some games, is the fact that plenty of Amiga games featured both, and the music could still sound really good.

I guess the games that didn't feature both were either made by lazy people who were maybe doing ST ports, or they weren't skilled enough to overcome the 4 sound channels. Whatever the case -- not having music and sound effects sucked.

[Hirst]

I was never that fond of Cool Spot (I played the MD version), even at the time I thought it was flashy but fairly average.

What I do remember is quite liking the now probably completely forgotten isometric spin-off, Spot Goes To Hollywood - specifically the Saturn version. It's probably a load of dross now, might investigate.

[Yakumo]

Here we go with the first of many remastered versions of classic Battle of the Ports videos. The early shows didn't feature a voiceover and only ran in 30fps. Over time I'll be remastering these old episodes with full voiceover as you've come to expect, 60fps captures and adding games that I may have missed in the past.
So sit back and enjoy this new version of Battle of the Ports, Out Run.

[Kotatsu Neko]

I had the miserable Amiga version back in the day. The title screen is such a tease, leading you to believe that some near arcade perfect wonder awaits. As usual it was a garbage ST port running on the CPU (hence why the ST version runs better) with truly awful, butchered visuals. The Amiga got such a raw deal, it was capable of so much more.

In later years I acquired the PC Engine version, then the amazing Saturn port. Now I play it on the Switch (which is missing in the Battle of the Ports video), which is another excellent M2 conversion. I just wish they could have included the Richard Jacques remixed soundtrack as an extra.

[Leon Retro]

I had the miserable Amiga version back in the day.

Early Amiga ports of terrible ST games were nothing less than a crime. Still makes me feel...

The Amiga got such a raw deal, it was capable of so much more.

Clever, considered design could have at least delivered something similar to the arcade version. You couldn't expect a close port, but a reasonable approximation would have been possible.

Anyway, I've always loved the original OutRun. It took until the Saturn port for me to be able to enjoy the magic of the arcade version in the home. I remember getting the Master System port for Xmas and feeling very underwhelmed, so I sold it soon after.

I like the original game even more than OutRun 2, which is also a fave. There's something extra special about the first game that still resonates today.

[Nu-Eclipse]

JPN Saturn port.

3DS Sega 3D Classics / Switch SEGA AGES ports.

JPN Dreamcast (Yu Suzuki Game Works) port.

In that order.

With special mention going to the PCE port - sounds/looks/feels like the coin-op more than Sega's ports for their own consoles!

All the other ports of OutRun are largely trash.

[Leon Retro]

With special mention going to the PCE port - sounds/looks/feels like the coin-op more than Sega's ports for their own consoles!

It's quite rough looking, but you soon forget about that and realise it's a really nice port. The graphics look reasonably authentic, and the excellent music helps to make the port feel really satisfying. One of many wonders the tiny machine has in its library.

[Nu-Eclipse]

It's quite rough looking, but you soon forget about that and realise it's a really nice port. The graphics look reasonably authentic, and the excellent music helps to make the port feel really satisfying. One of many wonders the tiny machine has in its library.

Obvious excuse of the PCE being essentially an 8-bit machine attempting to replicate cutting-edge-for-the-time sprite scalar arcade tech aside, I would argue that the MD and SMS ports of OutRun look much rougher, which is criminal given that Sega coded those ports in-house for their own console hardware.

IMO, it's a little embarrassing that NEC Avenue could code a quality port of OutRun (in context of underpowered console hardware) when Sega were twice unable to with the MD & SMS.