Which are the most accurate Amiga arcade conversions?

Codetapper · 10 November 2003, 00:00

We've had a thread about the absolute worst conversions, now for something positive! What conversions of arcade machines do you think are the most accurate in terms of everything in the original is present and with similar graphics in the Amiga version?

3 games immediately spring to mind, but I must admit that I haven't played the arcade versions enough to truly know how close they are:

Midnight Resistance
Pang
Rainbow Islands

Can anybody think of some some other games which they think are perfect conversions even if the original arcade game was rubbish? I would be most interested to see what we collectively think is the closest copy ever!

Honourable mention for me goes to:

Puzznic - Colours are quite a bit different
Operation Thunderbolt - Graphics/vehicle movement different (Ocean reckon improved!)

spiff · 10 November 2003, 00:43

I agree on rainbow islands, prol closest I've seen on the amiga. Bubble bobble is pretty close and I would bet parasol stars is as well.

Midnight resistance is a favourite of mine and while the amiga version captures a lot of the gameplay its missing the the extra buttons and the graphics are not even close to the pixel perfection of rainbow islands.. the arcade simply has a lot more colors and there are a lot of minor details missing in the background.

I heard silkworm was a good conversion.

Codetapper · 10 November 2003, 01:01

I find Bubble Bobble's movement about half the speed of the coin-op and for me that kills the game. Too often you want to move left/right or up a platform quickly and the enemies just kill you because your character is too slow! That one flaw means it is not accurate enough for me. The layouts and enemies however seem identical!

Silkworm I had forgotten about, a great conversion!

Galahad/FLT · 10 November 2003, 01:15

Double Dragon 2 was a good effort.... certainly at least it looked like the arcade unlike the first game!

Line of Fire was a good attempt

Mortal Kombat

Dragons Lair (it was a good conversion of a shit game, i.e. it was the same!)

R-Type was ok

Forgotten Worlds was ok

And, I have to say this, though I don't expect anyone to agree with me.

Streetfighter 2. Sure its not anywhere near as good as the Megadrive and SNES versions, but as soon as I heard Gary Mason and US Gold were handling the conversion, I had such extreme reservations of it being any good whatsover, that I was pleasantly surprised at its arrival. It was better than I expected them to do. That doesn't mean it was great, because Elfmania, Fightin' Spirit and Shadow Fighter demonstrated just what the Amiga could do in the right hands.

JudasEZT · 10 November 2003, 01:15

StDragon is one of the most accurate conversions. Similar to Silkworm but even more acurated.

Also SuperOff-Road its a pixelperfect conversion,.. Graftgold ppl were really profesionals.

GoldenAxe were near perfection,.. I suppose memory problems made unable to be more perfect.
Yeah, DoubleDragon2 were nice, maybe because it do not played likes DD2 arcade. it plays like DD1 arcade.

Toki and NewZealandStory were very good conversions. In Toki is funny to see that graphics are differents.

Miggy2TheMax · 10 November 2003, 01:44

Final Fight was exteremely close conversion from the arcades... really well done.

gary · 10 November 2003, 01:46

Space Harrier (Return to the fantasy zone) was well done. My experience with the coin op was limited so there could be some flaws.

Ghosts'n'goblins was fun to play. Apart from the bad scrolling I think it was pretty close to the arcade machine.

Commando was accurate (as far as I know) as well.

Gauntlet 2 - While it is a good conversion I'm not sure about the arcade accuracy.

Codetapper · 10 November 2003, 02:21

Quote:

Originally posted by Miggy2TheMax
Final Fight was exteremely close conversion from the arcades... really well done.

I disagree about this one. Having never played the arcade I found it a pretty good game but once I got MAME it's obvious that a lot of stuff has been removed. Lots of moves for each character have been dropped, the rolling barrels are missing, you can't smash up the background (tyres, phone booths etc), the game slows down a lot when there are lots of enemies on screen, the scrolling is missing (eg subway part). I realise they had to squeeze the game down but I think there are a few too many differences for my liking.

On the plus side, the intro is very accurate! The only thing I noticed is the "turn on your TV" part is different - the arcade has the TV flickering and it scrolls to the left when he flicks on the TV.

Space Harrier - good call, looks very similar!

I definitely agree about Mortal Kombat - the only thing that I can think of that is missing is Shang Tsung not being able to morph into characters other than your opponent! Probe did very well!

Amiga1992 · 10 November 2003, 02:44

Quote:

Originally posted by Codetapper
Silkworm I had forgotten about, a great conversion!

Silkworm? Arcade?!?!

Anyway, my votes go to Mortal Kombat, Mortal Kombat 2 (though these were more like Genesis ports), T2:Arcade, Space Harrier, and Liquid Kids, off the top of my head.

I woldn't consider Rainbow Islands to be close to the arcade version, I think it was much better on the Amiga!

Dizzy · 10 November 2003, 09:13

Well Rainbow Island was really good, but it did miss some levels, so I wouldnt call it perfect

JudasEZT · 10 November 2003, 09:33

Quote:

Originally posted by Codetapper
I disagree about this one. Having never played the arcade I found it a pretty good game but once I got MAME it's obvious that a lot of stuff has been removed. Lots of moves for each character have been dropped, the rolling barrels are missing, you can't smash up the background (tyres, phone booths etc), the game slows down a lot when there are lots of enemies on screen, the scrolling is missing (eg subway part). I realise they had to squeeze the game down but I think there are a few too many differences for my liking.

I agree in all, but I dont remember the game got slow downs... If does its respectable because sprites are really big.

Respect MortalKombat,.. buff.. thats a pile of crap game. Itsnt smooth,.. it moves blocky and jerky, only one scroll,... Its similar to Amiga StreetFighter2 but with smaller graphics that are fucked ugly scans.

T_hairy_bootson · 10 November 2003, 10:10

I always thought sega's "Shadow Dancer" the shinobi sequal was a pretty good conversion.

I'll have to re-install MAME to compare properly I guess.

Amiga1992 · 10 November 2003, 10:25

Quote:

Originally posted by JudasEZT
Respect MortalKombat,.. buff.. thats a pile of crap game. Itsnt smooth,.. it moves blocky and jerky, only one scroll,... Its similar to Amiga StreetFighter2 but with smaller graphics that are fucked ugly scans.

But that's how the arcade was

Actually, the playability of the arcade remains. Even with a one-button joystick. This alone makes it a great conversion IMO.

I never liked Mortal Kombat(arcade or anything), but I played MK2 extensively on the Amiga (the arcade version with so many buttons always confused me, it played much better on the miggy with one button!!!)

JudasEZT · 10 November 2003, 10:58

hmmm.. now I realizes Ive never seen the coin-op.

hey! ShadowDancer its very good, yeah!! I love that Amiga game.. its the best game from USGold by far.
Original coinop has differences (more scrolls and the intro) but Amiga version its a cool game in the Amiga way.. big graphics, only one scroll but multidirectional with plenty of colour.. and only one disk.. I love single disks games

Kodoichi · 10 November 2003, 11:58

Pong & Asteroids

Frog · 10 November 2003, 12:55

Arkanoid, Bombjack & Buggy Boy are good one. I think they're very close to the original arcade game. At least they made something looking good and they keep the fun of the arcade coin up

Dragon Ninja was a good graphic conversion but the gameplay is quite awful. On ST character movement are too slow whereas on Amiga it was too fast... jumping over a hole is a challenge.

Same thing for Black Tiger, good graphic conversion but they totally forget about the gameplay

spiff · 10 November 2003, 14:07

The R type conversion was good, but it wasnt great.. seeing how the sega master system with its 3 mhz z80 got a better conversion imo.. and lets not forget the pc-engine.

Shadow dancer and golden axe are both good ports, the speed is pretty close to the arcade.. both of them suffer from the "missing colors" problems tough.. The amiga version of golden axe is a bit like the toki conversion. The gfx is a bit more "vibrant" on the amiga, while the arcade has that typical sega system 16 feeling..its a bit more grayish dirty.

I get the feeling that most games either are pretty close conversions of early games.. like rainbow islands or super off road (good call)

Or really slimmed down gfx wise to keep the speed.. like mortal combat 2 and terminator 2

JudasEZT · 10 November 2003, 14:31

I dont guess ShadowDancer or GoldenAxe lose colours.

ShadowDancer lose a second scroll for background, but colours are a lot, there isnt any degree with lack of tones. Just the palette is a bit washed out respect coin op.

GoldenAxe lacks of frames of anims in beasts who you ride and in magics. Also lose some effects and backgrounds graphics. but for memory problems surely. Colours lose just a little bit but with no problem.
Background graphics are more similar to coinop than Megadrive version, which is based in just one degree of brown colours,IMO.
What GoldenAxe miss really is the second button for jump =} In the time, when I invited my friends to play they didnt know how to do with the jump system.

JudasEZT · 10 November 2003, 14:34

Pacmania was incredible on amiga (first fullsceen I saw in my life =) I suppose its really close to coinop.

7-Zark-7 · 10 November 2003, 15:26

Quote:

Originally posted by Miggy2TheMax
Final Fight was exteremely close conversion from the arcades... really well done.

What Codetapper said-play the MAME version if you can to brush up on whats missing!! There was definitely a slowdown as Codetapper mentioned too,btw.

In a WIP preview of Mortal Kombat, that Option of Shang Tsung's alternate characters,was a compromise option chosen on technical grounds-if I recall correctly,the Amiga version was actually a direct port of the Megadrive version,(except maybe with the exception of the sound FX/music). Still, the game producer was very sincere in his observations in that preview & seemed determined to produce an above average conversion.

Agree with Pang being an excellent translation, has Rodland been included yet too? Although I haven't played it personally, I recall Zzap gave praise to Amiga P47 Thunderbolt with a comment along the lines of a "great conversion of a so-so arcade game". http://hol.abime.net/?id=1001

10 November 2003, 00:00	#1
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	Which are the most accurate Amiga arcade conversions? We've had a thread about the absolute worst conversions, now for something positive! What conversions of arcade machines do you think are the most accurate in terms of everything in the original is present and with similar graphics in the Amiga version? 3 games immediately spring to mind, but I must admit that I haven't played the arcade versions enough to truly know how close they are: Midnight Resistance Pang Rainbow Islands Can anybody think of some some other games which they think are perfect conversions even if the original arcade game was rubbish? I would be most interested to see what we collectively think is the closest copy ever! Honourable mention for me goes to: Puzznic - Colours are quite a bit different Operation Thunderbolt - Graphics/vehicle movement different (Ocean reckon improved!) Last edited by Codetapper; 10 November 2003 at 00:13.

10 November 2003, 01:15	#4
Galahad/FLT Going nowhere Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: United Kingdom Age: 50 Posts: 8,986	... Double Dragon 2 was a good effort.... certainly at least it looked like the arcade unlike the first game! Line of Fire was a good attempt Mortal Kombat Dragons Lair (it was a good conversion of a shit game, i.e. it was the same!) R-Type was ok Forgotten Worlds was ok And, I have to say this, though I don't expect anyone to agree with me. Streetfighter 2. Sure its not anywhere near as good as the Megadrive and SNES versions, but as soon as I heard Gary Mason and US Gold were handling the conversion, I had such extreme reservations of it being any good whatsover, that I was pleasantly surprised at its arrival. It was better than I expected them to do. That doesn't mean it was great, because Elfmania, Fightin' Spirit and Shadow Fighter demonstrated just what the Amiga could do in the right hands.

10 November 2003, 01:15	#5
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	StDragon is one of the most accurate conversions. Similar to Silkworm but even more acurated. Also SuperOff-Road its a pixelperfect conversion,.. Graftgold ppl were really profesionals. GoldenAxe were near perfection,.. I suppose memory problems made unable to be more perfect. Yeah, DoubleDragon2 were nice, maybe because it do not played likes DD2 arcade. it plays like DD1 arcade. Toki and NewZealandStory were very good conversions. In Toki is funny to see that graphics are differents. Last edited by JudasEZT; 10 November 2003 at 01:42.

10 November 2003, 14:07	#17
spiff Oh noes! Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Neverland Posts: 766	The R type conversion was good, but it wasnt great.. seeing how the sega master system with its 3 mhz z80 got a better conversion imo.. and lets not forget the pc-engine. Shadow dancer and golden axe are both good ports, the speed is pretty close to the arcade.. both of them suffer from the "missing colors" problems tough.. The amiga version of golden axe is a bit like the toki conversion. The gfx is a bit more "vibrant" on the amiga, while the arcade has that typical sega system 16 feeling..its a bit more grayish dirty. I get the feeling that most games either are pretty close conversions of early games.. like rainbow islands or super off road (good call) Or really slimmed down gfx wise to keep the speed.. like mortal combat 2 and terminator 2 Last edited by spiff; 09 August 2004 at 14:45.

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10 November 2003, 00:43	#2
spiff Oh noes! Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Neverland Posts: 766	I agree on rainbow islands, prol closest I've seen on the amiga. Bubble bobble is pretty close and I would bet parasol stars is as well. Midnight resistance is a favourite of mine and while the amiga version captures a lot of the gameplay its missing the the extra buttons and the graphics are not even close to the pixel perfection of rainbow islands.. the arcade simply has a lot more colors and there are a lot of minor details missing in the background. I heard silkworm was a good conversion.

10 November 2003, 01:01	#3
Codetapper 2 contact me: email only! Join Date: May 2001 Location: Auckland / New Zealand Posts: 3,182	I find Bubble Bobble's movement about half the speed of the coin-op and for me that kills the game. Too often you want to move left/right or up a platform quickly and the enemies just kill you because your character is too slow! That one flaw means it is not accurate enough for me. The layouts and enemies however seem identical! Silkworm I had forgotten about, a great conversion!

10 November 2003, 01:44	#6
Miggy2TheMax Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Australia Age: 45 Posts: 381	Final Fight was exteremely close conversion from the arcades... really well done.

10 November 2003, 01:46	#7
gary Junior Member Join Date: Mar 2002 Location: Perth, Western Australia Age: 50 Posts: 283	Space Harrier (Return to the fantasy zone) was well done. My experience with the coin op was limited so there could be some flaws. Ghosts'n'goblins was fun to play. Apart from the bad scrolling I think it was pretty close to the arcade machine. Commando was accurate (as far as I know) as well. Gauntlet 2 - While it is a good conversion I'm not sure about the arcade accuracy.

10 November 2003, 09:13	#10
Dizzy Pirate Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: Denmark Posts: 3,395	Well Rainbow Island was really good, but it did miss some levels, so I wouldnt call it perfect

10 November 2003, 10:10	#12
T_hairy_bootson Workbitch 1.3 Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Melbourne, Australia Age: 46 Posts: 2,084	I always thought sega's "Shadow Dancer" the shinobi sequal was a pretty good conversion. I'll have to re-install MAME to compare properly I guess.

10 November 2003, 10:58	#14
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	hmmm.. now I realizes Ive never seen the coin-op. hey! ShadowDancer its very good, yeah!! I love that Amiga game.. its the best game from USGold by far. Original coinop has differences (more scrolls and the intro) but Amiga version its a cool game in the Amiga way.. big graphics, only one scroll but multidirectional with plenty of colour.. and only one disk.. I love single disks games

10 November 2003, 11:58	#15
Kodoichi Banned Join Date: Jul 2001 Location: I'm the smiling face on your TV, I exploit you still you love me Posts: 515	Pong & Asteroids

10 November 2003, 12:55	#16
Frog Junior Member Join Date: Aug 2001 Location: France Posts: 1,385	Arkanoid, Bombjack & Buggy Boy are good one. I think they're very close to the original arcade game. At least they made something looking good and they keep the fun of the arcade coin up Dragon Ninja was a good graphic conversion but the gameplay is quite awful. On ST character movement are too slow whereas on Amiga it was too fast... jumping over a hole is a challenge. Same thing for Black Tiger, good graphic conversion but they totally forget about the gameplay

10 November 2003, 14:31	#18
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	I dont guess ShadowDancer or GoldenAxe lose colours. ShadowDancer lose a second scroll for background, but colours are a lot, there isnt any degree with lack of tones. Just the palette is a bit washed out respect coin op. GoldenAxe lacks of frames of anims in beasts who you ride and in magics. Also lose some effects and backgrounds graphics. but for memory problems surely. Colours lose just a little bit but with no problem. Background graphics are more similar to coinop than Megadrive version, which is based in just one degree of brown colours,IMO. What GoldenAxe miss really is the second button for jump =} In the time, when I invited my friends to play they didnt know how to do with the jump system.

10 November 2003, 14:34	#19
JudasEZT Registered User Join Date: May 2003 Location: mercury Posts: 577	Pacmania was incredible on amiga (first fullsceen I saw in my life =) I suppose its really close to coinop.

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