Games that are better/worse on the Sega MegaDrive.

[matthew]

Alien 3 was another game that was better on the MegaDrive.

On the MegaDrive you could have Sound-FX & Music playing simultaneously & there was a parallax background which didn't scroll in the Amiga version.

[dlfrsilver]

Yes, about Altered Beast, you would be amazed to know that the ST version is better
than the amiga version !! Just can't stand that ! The amiga version is a very bad ST port. Unfortunately many games were coded with ST in mind, making them horrible compared to the megadrive versions. I'm thinking about Strider for example. How could have they made such a shit ? St limitation since it cannot handle complex animations,
the sprites are all smallish...

[drHirudo]

Originally Posted by dlfrsilver

Yes, about Altered Beast, you would be amazed to know that the ST version is better
than the amiga version !! Just can't stand that ! The amiga version is a very bad ST port. Unfortunately many games were coded with ST in mind, making them horrible compared to the megadrive versions. I'm thinking about Strider for example. How could have they made such a shit ? St limitation since it cannot handle complex animations,
the sprites are all smallish...

The Amiga ports were not done by Sega themselves, but by third party developers, some time even US Gold. US Gold was the other name for bad quality. I wonder how these games were on the Japanese X68000 platforms, but I don't have X68000 emulator on AmigaOne yet I heard Ghost and Goblins on X68000 is very good, close to the Arcade original, but on the Amiga it is not bad either.

[Retro-Nerd]

The most arcade games are pixel-perfect ports on the X68000.

[hitchhikr]

dlfrsilver, drHirudo: TIERTEX, nuff said.

To me, most megadrive games (pc engine games too) are superior to the amiga ones mainly for 3 reasons:

1. Piracy: when you know your games won't be cracked two days before their release you can invest more time and money in them, you know it'll sell.

2. The consoles always had dedicated hardware so they were optimized to render games only & developers had less technical stuff to learn in order to master them (sega provided specific examples for games in their devkit).

3. The quality control performed by the consoles constructors and the money investment in order to obtain a devkit.

Also, i wouldn't compare the megadrive (released in 1988) with the a1200 (1992) but rather with the old a500 (1987).

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

dlfrsilver, drHirudo: TIERTEX, nuff said.

To me, most megadrive games (pc engine games too) are superior to the amiga ones mainly for 3 reasons:

1. Piracy: when you know your games won't be cracked two days before their release you can invest more time and money in them, you know it'll sell.

2. The consoles always had dedicated hardware so they were optimized to render games only & developers had less technical stuff to learn in order to master them (sega provided specific examples for games in their devkit).

3. The quality control performed by the consoles constructors and the money investment in order to obtain a devkit.

Also, i wouldn't compare the megadrive (released in 1988) with the a1200 (1992) but rather with the old a500 (1987).

Partly true, but mostly because it was expensive to develop for consoles which is why people made more of an effort on the consoles.

[Anubis]

I'm not sure why people even mentioned SotB - worst game on any format IMHO.

Mr. Nutz is better on Amiga, as MD/Gen is completely different and less attractive game.

Even some MD/Gen games had worst sound, I like them more on console because of loading time and no floppy swapping.

SF II is better on SNES then on Amiga or MD/Gen.

R-Type (1 or 2) works much better on PC Engine then any other format.

Flashback is better on Sega CD, as intro and video seq are prerendered. (same as 3DO, Jaguar and PC-CD Rom version of the game IIRC) Same thing with original Dune.

Mega Turrican (Turrican 3 on Amiga) plays better on Genesis. (because of controller)

[Galahad/FLT]

Originally Posted by Anubis

I'm not sure why people even mentioned SotB - worst game on any format IMHO.

I think it was mentioned because when a game was written specifically to take advantage of the Amiga, it didn't translate technically as well to other machines.

[Anubis]

Originally Posted by Galahad/FLT

I think it was mentioned because when a game was written specifically to take advantage of the Amiga, it didn't translate technically as well to other machines.

Thanks for explanation.

Here is wiki explanation for bad MD/Genesis port:

The Sega Genesis port is considered by some to be one of the hardest video games ever made [2]. This is due to a sloppy conversion; the original had a 50Hz refresh rate, but all Sega Genesis games had to have a 60Hz refresh rate due to being made for NTSC televisions. Accordingly, the conversion team increased the refresh rate to 60Hz, but did not change the amount of time each frame remained on screen, making it run 16.7% faster than the original. Many gamers struggled to complete it after its release, but due to the incredibly high difficulty level with no continues available, very few achieved this goal until Sega revealed the invincibility cheat in January 1992. As if to make up for this, the Japanese Mega Drive version not only ran at the correct speed but had enhanced in-game graphics as well as a toned down difficulty setting, but the game still lacked continues.

[Etze]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

2. The consoles always had dedicated hardware so they were optimized to render games only

you are talking about Sega's "Blast processing", aren't you?

[albino]

Originally Posted by hitchhikr

Also, i wouldn't compare the megadrive (released in 1988) with the a1200 (1992) but rather with the old a500 (1987).

sorry but the amiga500 is exactly the same technologie than the amiga1000, so (1985).

[Adropac2]

Universal Warrior is indeed a laughably bad joke of a game and nothing like as cool as on Amiga

Road Rash is better for Megadrive because of some great music and punchy feel to the overall flow but it looks a cleaner on Amiga

[dlfrsilver]

i would like to know how better or strong the VDP of the MG is in front of the copper and blitter on amiga.

any idea coders ?

[Old Fool]

Haven't played but Mortal Kombat 2 seems to be (at least graphics) better on MD.

[drHirudo]

Originally Posted by Old Fool

Haven't played but Mortal Kombat 2 seems to be (at least graphics) better on MD.

Mortal Kombat 2 on the Amiga is late unpolished port. On the Sega much more touch is given to the game. All the Amiga games after 1993 were more touched while ported to the consoles. There are exceptions of course.

Technically speaking the Amiga have better sound - Paula over bad FM and PSG chips controlled by Z80 (which offloaded some of the main CPU. Better graphics on the Amiga - more colors and higher resolutions which are used at some games and give better impresion of real 16 bit platform. More system memory - even unexpanded Amiga 500 have 512 KB memory but it was used for the program too, the Sega Mega Drive have 64 KB main RAM, 8KB RAM accessed from the Z80 and 8 KB Audio RAM. The more memory can be used for more complex games, but for platform, jump and runs and beat em ups 64KB RAM is more than enough. Input - sadly the Amiga controller with only 1 fire button as standart sucks over the 3 button (and 6 later) controller of the Sega Mega Drive. Many games sucked when you need to jump with joystick or press space to fire special weapon (like in Turrican), or press alt to make magic (like in Golden Axe) and on the Sega they were more playable. Available software - the Sega as a console have mostly commercial software available today, and only little bunch of homebrew hacked games and demos, while the Amiga have demos, games - PD and commercial and still active development.

[TCD]

Mortal Kombat (1 & 2) belong to the MD IMHO. No loading times, better controller (more buttons ) and a bit faster.

[Galahad/FLT]

What you have to remember about Mortal Kombat on the Amiga, is we were originally not going to get it at all. It was only because Probe pushed Acclaim telling them it wouldn't be much cost that Acclaim agreed.

[s2325]

Jim Power on MegaDrive have music from level 1 instead of title theme. Also weird sounds taken from Mega Turrican/Turrican 3.

[TCD]

Yup, Jim Power is nicer on the Amiga
Joe & Mac was also better on the Amiga

[drHirudo]

Originally Posted by TheCyberDruid

Yup, Jim Power is nicer on the Amiga
Joe & Mac was also better on the Amiga

But I like Jim Power on the SNES more. On the SNES it is best, but there it is totally different game. Like Mr Nutz on Sega Mega Drive and Amiga.