Coin-op conversions that could be better

JudasEZT · 18 October 2003, 11:49

Ive been playing MAME a little bit these days. Ive been watching some games that are not in Amiga but could be done perfectly,..

For example Karnov. This only was made on Spectrum (c64 and CPC versions were exactly to Spectrum one) but seeing the arcade it would be able to do a pixle perfect conversion. If you take ThePlague game engine you would have practically the same game.

Another coin op Ive been analyzing is AlteredBeast,.. damn.. it seems an Amiga game,.. also a pixel perfect conversion would be possible.. but Amiga version from Activision sucks (seems an atarist game). Characters moves blocky and graphics are smaller than coin op..

These two games has only one scroll field. So it would be possible to use 32 colors for its graphics on Amiga.

do you think in another conversion that could be on Amiga??

killergorilla · 18 October 2003, 13:02

All the Sega arcade conversions where shite on the Amiga pretty much.

Afterburner, Altered Beast, Outrun, Shinobi, Thunderblade, Strider.

I know they weren't ported by Sega as such but they have been mutilated on the way by some stupid arse conversion.

Sega must have not wanted decent conversions, as the Megadrive versions of all of the above are much better, and are much more faithful to the originals.

Another shitty arcade conversion was Chase HQ, which really sucked arse on the Amiga. Same goes for Final Fight and Double Dragon, they were embarassing.

The Amiga version of Bubble Bobble wasn't up to scratch either. Just look a games such as Rainbow Islands, Toki, New Zealand Story, Rodland, R-Type etc. Those were conversions worthy of joyous praise.

the wolf · 18 October 2003, 13:19

What about Out Run, Turbo Out Run, Power Drift, Rolling Thunder, Street Fighter 1&2 and Bionic Commando?

And if you wait a little, I'm sure someone will find some other names...

Galahad/FLT · 18 October 2003, 13:28

The reason why the conversions on Megadrive/Genesis were so good is because Sega handled them for themselves.

Tiertex, Teque, Twilight were responsible for converting most arcade titles.

Strider is CAPCOM by the way

But your point is taken, most arcade conversions on Amiga were shite, and the only reasons are money and time.

Most games were done for the Atari ST first, as at the time, it sold more game units than Amiga. The Amiga version would differ in that it would use the blitter and copper and maybe they might jazz the music up a little, but they would essentially be identical.

The reason why it was rare for the Amiga version to be significantly better (althougth Double Dragon 2 on Amiga was better than the ST version because Richard Aplin wrote that version first) is because if you allow yourself to convert an arcade machine and make it as best as you possibly can for Amiga, you then make it so much harder to convert down to Atari ST. Sure, the graphics would look nicer in 32 colours, but, they would then look horrendous in 16 on the Atari ST, thus creating more work just to make it look ok.

Hybris, Battle Squadron, Team 17, Psygnosis all showed what could be done with Amiga specific games, with no compromises. Has anyone actually seen Shadow of the Beast on the Atari ST?

US Gold were a bang them out quick operation to get in the cash, so long as the game was vaguely reminiscent of the arcade in question, thats all they gave a toss about.

killergorilla · 18 October 2003, 13:41

I've not seen SOTB for the ST but the Master System version is actually pretty darn good.

I'm not sure who handled all the Master System conversions, but Zool, New Zealand Story, R-Type, SOTB, Pacmania are all excellent versions of the originals and it's quite a feat for the little black system.

JudasEZT · 18 October 2003, 13:50

Sega´s good conversions on Amiga are next ones:

SpaceHarrier -- pretty cool in all aspects.

SuperHang-On -- man I enjoyed that on amiga

GoldenAxe -- Its veeery good but I guess could be slightly better.

btw, nowadays checking Amiga R-Type I guess itsnt as good.. I remember it better.

woody57 · 18 October 2003, 14:00

....Every time a " new game " hit the streets the discussion and letters to Amiga magazines begging for a miggy port of the hot title which sometimes was nearly a year after original ...scaning promised screenshots of how it was going to look .....eventually getting a chance to play the coverdisk demo level.....its like the starving man comparison .....when he finally gets a taste of something he,s promised is special.....just a little taste......and he,s been waiting so long , he believes its the best he,s ever tasted.......its all he wants....he saves up ....spends a fortune ...just to find .....its plain old cabbage soup with a fancy label............in retrospect I agree with Galahad most companies were not interested in faithful/max specification amiga ports they were looking at sales numbers and the old argument of it being backwards compatable on all miggies a thing I believe contributed to the platforms demise .....

.....However thank goodness we were never limited just to conversions from other platforms

7-Zark-7 · 18 October 2003, 15:40

Galahad pretty much summed up the attitude of the time unfortunately-as was almost inevitable,the more original games tended to be the superior games.

Although, Graftgold showed exactly what could be done with Coin-op translations when done properly with Rainbow Islands.
Likewise Ocean France with Pang-whether that was the case with the unreleased Snow Bros.,who knows?

Always regarded it a pity that although the ST-portitis was inevitable, that Ghouls'n'Ghosts couldn't have been done a tad better-with the exception of the music that game was utter cack.

I was going to say that the cutesy-style simplistic style game seem to produce the best translations, but the odd conversion like Operation Thunderbolt translated across well enough too.

JudasEZT · 18 October 2003, 18:03

ShadowDancer were also a very nice conversion from a SegaCoinOp. its surprising coming from USGold.
Also is very good the fact that be an unique diskette.

why there wasnt a conversion of PrehistoricIsle from SNK??

18 October 2003, 18:33

SNK weren't very big fans of computers, as far as I can tell. Their main focus were arcades and the Neo-Geo console.

If there were to be Amiga conversions of SNK games, they would have most likely gone for the Fatal Fury series and/or Art Of Fighting series. They were major cash cows for them.

Galahad/FLT · 18 October 2003, 20:27

Quote:

Originally posted by JudasEZT
ShadowDancer were also a very nice conversion from a SegaCoinOp. its surprising coming from USGold.
Also is very good the fact that be an unique diskette.

why there wasnt a conversion of PrehistoricIsle from SNK??

Shadow Dancer was any good, was because US Gold sent a preview version to CU Amiga to review. CU Amiga said "we don't review preview copies as full games, but we do have some serious playability issues with it if you intend to release it as it is".

Curiously enough, US Gold took CU Amigas criticisms...... and actually acted on them, modifying the final game before release.

the wolf · 18 October 2003, 22:57

Quote:

Originally posted by 7-Zark-7
Likewise Ocean France with Pang-whether that was the case with the unreleased Snow Bros.

*Don't* name THAT game, please!

@ Galahad:
Good story about Shadow Dancer! That's great!

18 October 2003, 23:31

Quote:

Originally posted by Amigaboy
SNK weren't very big fans of computers, as far as I can tell. Their main focus were arcades and the Neo-Geo console.

If there were to be Amiga conversions of SNK games, they would have most likely gone for the Fatal Fury series and/or Art Of Fighting series. They were major cash cows for them.

Well, there were some SNK games for Amiga, like Ikari Warriors, Victory Road, Time Soldiers iirc. But they didn't code them. As usual, other small coder groups were at work. And Victory Road was a good conversion imo.
I always thought that their P.O.W. (Prisoners Of War) was done for Amiga also. But i was really dissappointed after i played the Amiga P.O.W... As it's a really different game

Shatterhand · 19 October 2003, 01:13

Time Soldiers, AFAIK is from Sega, not SNK. And it didn't get an amiga release. At least it's not listed in HOL.

Most SNK games pre-neogeo got computer versions. After they released the Neo-Geo, they only got ported into consoles. And what's funny, only recently, with the PSX and Saturn, SNK started to make their own ports. Before that, it was all third-party developed. Why people stopped porting SNK games for computers is really a mystery.

I think both Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury would do nice Amiga games, also Super Sidekicks.

Edit: Ops, he probably was refering to "Time Soldier" which is from SNK, and it was released on Amiga, and it is listed on HOL.

manicx · 20 October 2003, 09:09

Quote:

Originally posted by Galahad/FLT
Has anyone actually seen Shadow of the Beast on the Atari ST?

Yes. The next day, I bought an Amiga.

the wolf · 20 October 2003, 10:16

Quote:

Originally posted by manicx
Yes. The next day, I bought an Amiga.

killergorilla · 20 October 2003, 10:35

RIP SNK btw

Amiga1992 · 20 October 2003, 18:44

SNK-Playmore is doing things quite well as it is, so they are not quite RIP yet

Atari Lynx SOTB is the best version.

18 October 2003, 11:49	#1
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	Coin-op conversions that could be better Ive been playing MAME a little bit these days. Ive been watching some games that are not in Amiga but could be done perfectly,.. For example Karnov. This only was made on Spectrum (c64 and CPC versions were exactly to Spectrum one) but seeing the arcade it would be able to do a pixle perfect conversion. If you take ThePlague game engine you would have practically the same game. Another coin op Ive been analyzing is AlteredBeast,.. damn.. it seems an Amiga game,.. also a pixel perfect conversion would be possible.. but Amiga version from Activision sucks (seems an atarist game). Characters moves blocky and graphics are smaller than coin op.. These two games has only one scroll field. So it would be possible to use 32 colors for its graphics on Amiga. do you think in another conversion that could be on Amiga??

18 October 2003, 13:28	#4
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	Sega The reason why the conversions on Megadrive/Genesis were so good is because Sega handled them for themselves. Tiertex, Teque, Twilight were responsible for converting most arcade titles. Strider is CAPCOM by the way But your point is taken, most arcade conversions on Amiga were shite, and the only reasons are money and time. Most games were done for the Atari ST first, as at the time, it sold more game units than Amiga. The Amiga version would differ in that it would use the blitter and copper and maybe they might jazz the music up a little, but they would essentially be identical. The reason why it was rare for the Amiga version to be significantly better (althougth Double Dragon 2 on Amiga was better than the ST version because Richard Aplin wrote that version first) is because if you allow yourself to convert an arcade machine and make it as best as you possibly can for Amiga, you then make it so much harder to convert down to Atari ST. Sure, the graphics would look nicer in 32 colours, but, they would then look horrendous in 16 on the Atari ST, thus creating more work just to make it look ok. Hybris, Battle Squadron, Team 17, Psygnosis all showed what could be done with Amiga specific games, with no compromises. Has anyone actually seen Shadow of the Beast on the Atari ST? US Gold were a bang them out quick operation to get in the cash, so long as the game was vaguely reminiscent of the arcade in question, thats all they gave a toss about.

18 October 2003, 14:00	#7
woody57 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Manchester Posts: 801	How soon we forget...... ....Every time a " new game " hit the streets the discussion and letters to Amiga magazines begging for a miggy port of the hot title which sometimes was nearly a year after original ...scaning promised screenshots of how it was going to look .....eventually getting a chance to play the coverdisk demo level.....its like the starving man comparison .....when he finally gets a taste of something he,s promised is special.....just a little taste......and he,s been waiting so long , he believes its the best he,s ever tasted.......its all he wants....he saves up ....spends a fortune ...just to find .....its plain old cabbage soup with a fancy label............in retrospect I agree with Galahad most companies were not interested in faithful/max specification amiga ports they were looking at sales numbers and the old argument of it being backwards compatable on all miggies a thing I believe contributed to the platforms demise ..... .....However thank goodness we were never limited just to conversions from other platforms

19 October 2003, 01:13	#14
Shatterhand Warhasneverbeensomuchfun Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: Rio de Janeiro / Brazil Age: 41 Posts: 3,450	Time Soldiers, AFAIK is from Sega, not SNK. And it didn't get an amiga release. At least it's not listed in HOL. Most SNK games pre-neogeo got computer versions. After they released the Neo-Geo, they only got ported into consoles. And what's funny, only recently, with the PSX and Saturn, SNK started to make their own ports. Before that, it was all third-party developed. Why people stopped porting SNK games for computers is really a mystery. I think both Art of Fighting and Fatal Fury would do nice Amiga games, also Super Sidekicks. Edit: Ops, he probably was refering to "Time Soldier" which is from SNK, and it was released on Amiga, and it is listed on HOL. Last edited by Shatterhand; 19 October 2003 at 01:32.

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18 October 2003, 13:02	#2
killergorilla Lesser Talent Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Age: 42 Posts: 7,957	All the Sega arcade conversions where shite on the Amiga pretty much. Afterburner, Altered Beast, Outrun, Shinobi, Thunderblade, Strider. I know they weren't ported by Sega as such but they have been mutilated on the way by some stupid arse conversion. Sega must have not wanted decent conversions, as the Megadrive versions of all of the above are much better, and are much more faithful to the originals. Another shitty arcade conversion was Chase HQ, which really sucked arse on the Amiga. Same goes for Final Fight and Double Dragon, they were embarassing. The Amiga version of Bubble Bobble wasn't up to scratch either. Just look a games such as Rainbow Islands, Toki, New Zealand Story, Rodland, R-Type etc. Those were conversions worthy of joyous praise.

18 October 2003, 13:19	#3
the wolf Just Leeching Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Italy Age: 52 Posts: 416	What about Out Run, Turbo Out Run, Power Drift, Rolling Thunder, Street Fighter 1&2 and Bionic Commando? And if you wait a little, I'm sure someone will find some other names...

18 October 2003, 13:41	#5
killergorilla Lesser Talent Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Age: 42 Posts: 7,957	I've not seen SOTB for the ST but the Master System version is actually pretty darn good. I'm not sure who handled all the Master System conversions, but Zool, New Zealand Story, R-Type, SOTB, Pacmania are all excellent versions of the originals and it's quite a feat for the little black system.

18 October 2003, 13:50	#6
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	Sega´s good conversions on Amiga are next ones: SpaceHarrier -- pretty cool in all aspects. SuperHang-On -- man I enjoyed that on amiga GoldenAxe -- Its veeery good but I guess could be slightly better. btw, nowadays checking Amiga R-Type I guess itsnt as good.. I remember it better.

18 October 2003, 15:40	#8
7-Zark-7 Zone Friend Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: Brisbane/Australia Posts: 1,270	Galahad pretty much summed up the attitude of the time unfortunately-as was almost inevitable,the more original games tended to be the superior games. Although, Graftgold showed exactly what could be done with Coin-op translations when done properly with Rainbow Islands. Likewise Ocean France with Pang-whether that was the case with the unreleased Snow Bros.,who knows? Always regarded it a pity that although the ST-portitis was inevitable, that Ghouls'n'Ghosts couldn't have been done a tad better-with the exception of the music that game was utter cack. I was going to say that the cutesy-style simplistic style game seem to produce the best translations, but the odd conversion like Operation Thunderbolt translated across well enough too.

18 October 2003, 18:03	#9
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	ShadowDancer were also a very nice conversion from a SegaCoinOp. its surprising coming from USGold. Also is very good the fact that be an unique diskette. why there wasnt a conversion of PrehistoricIsle from SNK??

18 October 2003, 18:33	#10
Amigaboy Posts: n/a	SNK weren't very big fans of computers, as far as I can tell. Their main focus were arcades and the Neo-Geo console. If there were to be Amiga conversions of SNK games, they would have most likely gone for the Fatal Fury series and/or Art Of Fighting series. They were major cash cows for them.

20 October 2003, 10:35	#17
killergorilla Lesser Talent Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: UK Age: 42 Posts: 7,957	RIP SNK btw

20 October 2003, 18:44	#18
Amiga1992 Registered User Join Date: May 2001 Location: ? Posts: 19,645	SNK-Playmore is doing things quite well as it is, so they are not quite RIP yet Atari Lynx SOTB is the best version.

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