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:rofl:Quote:
Originally Posted by jesus.arnold
^ nice, As Matthew was saying the Sega Master System and the Turbografx-16 had a very short lifespan here that many people don't even know these systems even existed. Especially the SMS. I didn't even know about it until i started researching all this stuff. Also the Atari 7800 is new to me as well.
I guess stuff flies under the radar more frequent when you were only 10 years old :cool:
I wish it was still like that :( with different consoles achieving popularity and winning out in different regions, it'd be so much more interesting then.Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMatthews
Who's big in UK right now?
The Wii :)Quote:
Originally Posted by MrMatthews
The gen before that the PS2 completly dominated, the Gen before that the PS1 completely dominated
Well, I kind of figured the Wii was a given. I should have said, "which one is bigger: the Xbox or the Playstation?"
1. WiiQuote:
Originally Posted by MrMatthews
2. 360
3. PS3
I guess, 2nd place goes to the PS3 in Japan though so there is a slight difference with the market.
I can't believe that PS3 is in second place in japan. Usually Japanese consumers are very frugal with their money and only buy expensive things that have very good value. Don't get me wrong though, I'm not saying that PS3 doesn't have good value, but it hasn't had too good of a start.Quote:
Originally Posted by jesus.arnold
you are right, Rondo of Blood is a much better game than Bloodlines, i just overstated the lacking of animation in rondo to make my point about the PCE, but it is obvious that ROB is one of the best games fo the console, but there are other games lacking animation, Double Dragon is a good example.
thats my exact point of comparation, there are more things onscreen at once on the segacd, and more slowdonwn too, but the PCE version also suffers from slowdown in some places, and sprite flickering not present in the sega cd version.Quote:
Originally Posted by awack
Japanese people have a "keep it in the family" and a "stick together" ethic, they usually buy Japanese products more than overseas products if they can, this can even be seen with their foodstuffs, for instance I heard ages ago that most Japanese people buy rice grown in Japan even though it's substantially more expensive than the imported stuff that's also easily available.Quote:
Originally Posted by TheEdge
Another thing worth mentioning is that though the PS3 is outselling the 360 in Japan neither of them is actually selling that well, Japan seems to be in the middle of a handheld consoles only phase and the DS and PSP are very popular.
How long has the DS been out now? Five years?Quote:
Originally Posted by jesus.arnold
Mine says (c) 2004 on the back.
I think it's time somebody released something more powerful. *cough*Microsoft?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Alianger
Fair criticism. The majority of games are done in a minimalistic style. The PCE's base popularity thrived on this approach. Simplistic game design - NES games with upgrades. It wasn't competing with the Megadrive (the other way around actually). The NEC tried to filter out those games though for the US TG16. There weren't a whole lot of hucards to begin with and the TG16 started to see a drought. A lot of the Japanese games weren't marketable over here without some major modifications - and NEC wasn't up to the task.
There are quite a handful of games that go above that approach though. Most games don't try to push multiple layers of scrolls, large enemies onscreen, and lots of sprites onscreen. Most games don't even comes close to pushing the color onscreen capability. Most games have a minimalistic sound engine (for FX or chiptunes). A lot games are "NES games with knobs" to paraphrase Chris Covell. That doesn't make them "not" fun - quite the contrary, but they probably won't satisfy a Genesis only fan. But there are exceptions in the PCE library.
Comparing Blazing Lazers (Gunhed) to MUSHA is a bit out absurd(not that you did, but in general and cacita's claim). They are not even remotely similar. And even if they were, Gunhed is a 3meg game that uses minimally compressed 7color tile/sprites. A closer game for comparison would be Spriggan
. And that's a game running on 0.5meg of ram <_<;
I would. I'd say the Duo should be directly compared to the Genesis and SNES. It's not a different system like the SegaCD. It's a PCE with the same hardware, but with an upgrade in audio/storage to compete with the SFC. Hucards are more like TG express titles (or SMS cards to the SMS). They have minimal amount of ram to really do much. 8k wasn't really enough for a good decompression system back then. They would've added more ram to carts (populous is the only card with added ram), but they ditched the hucard format early on for the CD addon. And before you say the CD unit gives the unfair advantage of storage, I might remind you that the Duo only has 256k of ram. That's equivalent to a 2meg cart. Most games reserve about 32k for graphic decompression so it's less more like 1.5megabits, for the games that actually use it - most don't even compress the graphic data (really lack luster programming for the average CD game) making it equivalent to a 1meg size per load. So I'd say the Duo is a fair comparison to the MD and SNES.Quote:
I'm not counting the cd-addon though
Some suggestions:Quote:
as I've only played Rondo of Blood for it
Gate of Thunder
Ai Cho Aniki (Yes, I just suggested that game to you ;) )
Beyond ShadowGate (US)
BloodGear
Buster Bros
Cho Aniki (it's not perverted like Ai Cho Aniki)
Dynastic Hero (US)
Cotton
Double Dragon 2
Download 2
Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari (yeah, it's like the NES version with upgrade colors - but a fun game)
Dungeon Explorer 2 (graphics are so-so, but the game is fun. especially 5 players) (US)
Emerald Dragon (RPG)
Exile (US)
Exile 2
Flash Hiders
Forgotten Worlds
Fray Magical Adventure
Gain Ground
Fatal Fury 2 Special
Genocide
Sapphire
Godzilla
Gradius 2
Jim Power (if not just for the awesome sound track)
Shubibiman 3 (sometimes called Shockman 3)
Kiaiden 00
Langrisser (SCD version)
Last Alert (US) (old CD format, but still fun and the US one has super funny dialog)
Lords of Thunder (of course )
Macross 2036 ( this might not have all the special FX of the SFC version, but it's a much better shooter!)
Macross: Eternal long song (badass strategy game based on macross saga)
Mad Stalker (A fun port of the X68k version)
Magicoal (fun little japanese action rpg)
Might and Magic 3 (US)
Futureboy conan
Valis I (much better than the Genesis port)
Valis 3 (US)
Valis 4
Mystic Formula (not a racing game)
Nexzr (the infamous Nexzr)
Ninja action kaze kiri (definitely not worth the hype, but still a fun little game)
Psychic storm
Puyo Puyo
Rayxanber 2 (old CD format)
Rayxanber 3
Spriggan (Seirei Senshi Spriggan by Compile)
Spriggan Mark 2 (my favorite Compile shooter game to date)
Star Parodia (Hudson's equiv to Parodius )
Super Darius 2 (I like it better than Sagaia)
Terraforming
Sylphia (music by Compile's LMS)
World Heroes 2
Ys I & II (US)
Ys IV (translation patch)
PCE Duo has too many Japanese RPGs, more than the SFC or MD. So I didn't bother listing them, save for a couple. You've probably already seen most of the hucards (most people go through the hucars first for PCE emulation).
I agree quite a few games with chip music do have minimalistic sound engines and output, but a lot of chiptunes sound much more than NES with some additional channels. You just have an untrained ear. Most people that are not fans of FM think it all sounds the same - OPL2 to the YM2612, to the YM2152, etc. But even games with simpler sound engines still sound different than just some two channel square wave duty cycles of the NES. For someone who composes music, I'd figure you could at least hear the difference. It doesn't sound anything like FM, but it's not supposed to. It's mini wavetable synth (each channel holds a small PCM defined sample).Quote:
and the music sounds like nes with some additional channels
Grab yourself a copy of mednafen (has the best audio emulation) and some HES files:
Aldynes: especially track 40
BloodyWolf
Afterburner
BloodGear
Bomberman '93
Bomberman '94
Cyber City OEDO 808
Cychorider
Devil's Crush
Dragon Slayer 8 - Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu 2.hes
Dragon Slayer 8 - Kaze no Densetsu Xanadu.hes : These two have some most best/awesome chiptunes
Fiend Hunter
Super Star Soldier
Final Soldier
Soldier Blade
Bonk
Bonk 2
Parodius
Air Zonk
Rtype
Btw - a stock NES has 5 sound channels. The PCE chiptunes sounds like an NES with one more channel?
I admit, Rondo of Blood gets a lot of praise. Probably more than it should. I imported the game BITD when it first came out. It was an awesome game and totally fun, but I had no idea it would get the cult following that it does today. I never thought there was anything overly special about the game that push the Duo technically. It was a great game design, good graphics/music, and fun to play.Quote:
Great game, but both Castlevania IV and Bloodlines are better balanced.
But comparing it to Bloodlines, there's not contest. Even Castlevania 3 on the NES is better than Bloodlines. Bloodlines was such a let down (I'm glad my friend bought it instead of me). Considering the roll Sega was on before the game came out, it was an even bigger left down :( CV4 is pretty decent game, but I also disagree that it's better balanced. And gameplay mechanics of Rondo are almost perfect for a CV game pre-metroidvania series of CV (the DS ones are the best CV games to date).
TheEdge: Hehe. It must be great to have such impressive selective memory abilities. Man, all the responsibilities of my actions I could just brush aside like it was someone else's fault. You're one lucky man :D And I know your game, so I'll not play it (although I'll read it on other thread because if you're one thing, it's entertainment during the dry spells here :D ).
That one little point in the game was your comparison point!? So what's your point. That the PCE version couldn't put the extra bubbles on screen and slow down like the SegaCD version? Maybe you don't understand, but the Genesis is restricted to 64 sprites onscreen in that res mode - same as the PCE. Also - watch this, this, this, and this. That's the PCE version on the hardest setting with "revenge" bullets, recorded from the real system. Not only is the PCE 8bit CPU pushing around all those sprites, it's also busy doing more stuff than the Genesis processor like faking parallax (dynamic tiles and extra sprites) that the Genesis CPU does not have to deal with. So please, show me the point where the PCE version slows down.Quote:
thats my exact point of comparation, there are more things onscreen at once on the segacd, and more slowdonwn too, but the PCE version also suffers from slowdown in some places, and sprite flickering not present in the sega cd version.
But Bloodlines has very good animation for its time, at least as good as games like gunstar heroes and contra hc and much better than SCIV, as well as good fx and graphics, its just that Rondo of blood is exceptional, its also worth mentioning that Rondo is by far the fastest castlevania until the realease of SOTN, Taking every thing into account,i have no hesitation in saying that rondo is the most finely crafted game of its kind on a 8 or 16 bit console.Quote:
you are right, Rondo of Blood is a much better game than Bloodlines, i just overstated the lacking of animation in rondo to make my point about the PCE, but it is obvious that ROB is one of the best games fo the console, but there are other games lacking animation, Double Dragon is a good example.
You might not want to bring up Double Dragon 2 since there is also a genesis version which is no where near as good, theres also ports of shadow of the beast in which the pce version has nearly double the animation than the genesis version, unlike the people who are saying that the genesis is definitely better, i am not saying the same about the pce.
The initial post may have been trolling, but I'm surprised by some of the responses of people trashing the PC Engine library who've obviously not played or even seen many of the better PCE games, let alone titles that were ported to both PCE and MD.
Even if say, every shared port was always better on PCE or they happened to all be better on MD, that still doesn't mean anything about the hardware, only each developer.
There are very few NES ports for PCE, in relation to the number of overall titles and in general. Many like Double Dragon 2 are actually radically different remakes while the rest are actually perfect ports of the original arcade versions (Gradius, Gradius II, Salamander).
Many PCE games may, for various reasons, have not been pushed technically in various ways. But that still leaves hundreds of other great games that do do all those special things. But it's hard to take some comments seriously, when they dismiss the strengths of a console they don't like while placing the highest value on the tricks that the console they love is known for. Like, 'it doesn't matter how shaded/detailed/colorful the actual graphics are, only that they use parallax".
But the thing is, the PCE can and does do both. There's no such thing as "real" parallax and "fake", it's all fake. However an effect is achieved, it's still just a trick and all that matters is the end result. It's all just animation which tricks the human eye/brain into perceiving movement that isn't really happening. And the PCE has done pretty much every kind of parallax effect that the MD and SFC has.
The meaninglessness of the whole bits labeling is so old that I'll just try to sum it: Obviously the bits of a cpu aren't a measurement of a console's overall ability, since many PCE games are more or less identical all round to their MD or SFC counterparts. While at the same time the Intellivision uses a TRUE 16-bit cpu and the SNES cpu is the same speed as the one in the SMS.
Anyone who says that there aren't any technically impressive PCE games, any that can complete with Genesis games or any that they're all just enhanced NES games simply hasn't played enough of them.
I bought and rented SMS games from several stores in my hometown (with the nearest Toys R Us 1600km away). Pretty much the same deal with the TG-16. And I found both at various stores throughout the province.Quote:
Originally Posted by havok666
OK I just played a game where I have to take photos of UFO's, people flashing and women when their skirts raise up, then I played a game that was like wonderboy but birds try to poo on me and I keep kicking some nutter who's constantly trying to go to the toilet in public and who keeps jumping into litter bins and emptying them.
How easy are PC Engines to get hold of?
Are the games usually expensive?
Are they region free?
:lol:
I wish. The pinouts on the Hu Cards are swapped up. Dammit.Quote:
Originally Posted by jesus.arnold