Game Sack

[eddiespruce]

Great episode, Joe! I used to rent the NES version from the store when I was a kid. The Genesis version of course, is the best one. I've never seen the Game Boy version before watching this video, I'm going to have to check it out some time.

[Olls]

I think the NES batman is the best one. It is one of the best NES action platformers and even NES games in general.
The Genesis Batman, although the best out of all the Batman Genesis games, is just average compared to other Genesis titles.
Good episode.

[kool kitty89]

I think the NES batman is the best one. It is one of the best NES action platformers and even NES games in general.
The Genesis Batman, although the best out of all the Batman Genesis games, is just average compared to other Genesis titles.
Good episode.

Yes, but is Genesis Batman better than NES Batman? (which, if true, by your statements, would imply that the Genesis's average platform titles would be significantly ahead of the NES contemporaries )

It's also an early-gen MD game vs a late-gen NES one. (still among the best music on the MD though, especially as far as music lacking PCM -the music really makes that game, though it does on the NES too)

Oh yes, though Returns on Genesis is more complicated with its grapple and fighting mechanics, it just isn't as good of a game because of the highly dithered art and mundane music and level designs. That said, I've played through Returns on the Genesis and Sega CD repeatedly over the years, Sunsoft's Batman is just better.

Great episode Joe!

I thought most people complained about the bland/mediocre gameplay of Returns over the bland/mediocre art design and music. (which tend to be secondary complaints)

IMO dithering has little to do with it too, good art design can include very heavy dithering, but poor use of dithering (which can mean a number of things -from the type of dithering used to the places it's used in game) on top of weaker art direction in general will obviously look bad. (blur/filtering or no blur/filtering)
There's definitely cases where heavy dithering throughout art is to great benefit to the overall quality. (when it fits the style of art -obviously, more detail-rich art would benefit more, while higher contrast/low-color style art would be better with a low dithering threshold -which could mean only checker board dithering and/or infrequent use of dithering- or no dithering at all)
There's also cases where dithering is technically impractical for other reasons. (like on graphics intended for scaling, since dithering tends to looks horrible when scaled, especially fine dithering -unless the dithering is done as part of the scaling, like using pairs or 4x4 blocks of dithered pixels to draw the scaled image -something that the Sega CD can't do using the ASIC, though would be attractive -often preferable for faster rendering even- for software renderers)

[M4R14NO94]

It was missing the U.S. version of the second game for the Master System, though. Don't know how the hell they forgot it, but they did.

Crap, got it confused with that one. My bad.

[Barone]

I think the NES batman is the best one. It is one of the best NES action platformers and even NES games in general.
The Genesis Batman, although the best out of all the Batman Genesis games, is just average compared to other Genesis titles.
Good episode.

Sometimes I want to spend lots of money to create a great "Nintendo-16.com" site and see if get out of here with such negative and stubborn comments.
You are always talking like: "Not that great, the (S)NES version is the best".

Batman Returns for Genesis is crap, pure crap. Thank God that Joe also hates it and created some rules to avoid Genesis's demoralization in this episode.

[Olls]

Sometimes I want to spend lots of money to create a great "Nintendo-16.com" site and see if get out of here with such negative and stubborn comments.

[Barone]

Olls, Olls... Grow up, fanboy!
You've got your ass kicked here and went to the Final Fight CD's review to say that SNES version has a better color palette, a plain joke/lie.

You are so stubborn that you just can't accept that some people at Sega-16 do love Sega Genesis and find some of its games really great, like Sunsoft's Batman or Final Fight CD. You have to go for every single positive post about Sega stuff and say that it's crap indeed or not that great, and the Nintendo one is better.

The funniest thing about you is that all your opinions are based on emulation.

[Olls]

I see you took the low road.

I am disappoint.

[sheath]

I thought most people complained about the bland/mediocre gameplay of Returns over the bland/mediocre art design and music. (which tend to be secondary complaints)

IMO dithering has little to do with it too, good art design can include very heavy dithering, but poor use of dithering ... on top of weaker art direction in general will obviously look bad. ...There's definitely cases where heavy dithering throughout art is to great benefit to the overall quality....
There's also cases where dithering is technically impractical for other reasons. ...

Actually, over my RGB to HDMI upconverter the dithering looks freaking great in Batman Returns, but I haven't determined if it is blurring or not, the colors look different than emulation to be sure. I'm sure people do complain about the mundane gameplay, but I find the actual controls and gameplay concept well above average. It's just that the level designs are so limited that most folks won't bother to use the grapple swing and whatnot. Returns is below Adventures of Batman & Robin and Sunsoft Batman, but it has its merits.

[Joe Redifer]

Sheath, what RGB to HDMI converter are you using? Is it SCART? I have tried 2 so far and have been disappointed with both. The first one was a SCART RGB to 720p HDMI converter. The image quality was fantastic until something moved. Then you got interlacing artifacts that could not be removed. The images of the 32X Blackthorne in this latest episode were recorded from this device a few months ago (because I knew such an episode was in the future). The second device was SCART to a switchable 720p or 1080p. The interlacing artifacts were gone, but it wouldn't do RGB, only SCART. Both of these devices were sent back.

[sheath]

I bought one of these from Amazon. The picture is totally stable on my 40" Toshiba LCD. But the converter I got doesn't have the decal that the Amazon picture shows. Mine looks more like one of the standard ones on ebay right now.

[MrMatthews]

Great episode, and I'm pleased to see that the good old Gameboy is getting some love lately. How are you capturing the Gameboy footage, if you don't mind me asking? I seem to recall you saying that you wanted to record off the actual hardware, if at all possible, but I imagine for the handhelds you'd have to result to emulation.

And Agostin, why are you being so mean to Olls?

[Guntz]

I asked on NintendoAge about Game Boy video decoding (or encoding, transcoding, whatever). Long story short, here's a rundown of the situation per system:

Game Boy, Pocket (B&W) - Extremely hard and barely any work has been made on decoder, due to how the GB generates it's video. It's a bizarre and custom digital mess.

Game Boy Color - A decoder is possible, GBC video isn't nearly as bad as original GB video. Somebody has been working on one, but at the moment nothing is immediately available.

Game Boy Advance - At least two decoders are currently available. One is called the GBA TV Adapter, the other is named GBA Transverter. I think the latter was canned due to a copyright conflict with the former. Unfortunately I can't seem to find either available for sale.

[Barone]

And Agostin, why are you being so mean to Olls?

PM'ed.

[Joe Redifer]

How are you capturing the Gameboy footage, if you don't mind me asking? I seem to recall you saying that you wanted to record off the actual hardware, if at all possible

Yes, real hardware is much preferred, when possible. With the GameBoy, I am using the Super GameBoy adapter for the SNES. The DS/3DS is the biggest pain. I have to clamp that thing to a bench, mount the camera directly overhead and play it from the side.

Sheath, is your device 1080p or 720p? I am afraid to try a different device because I have no clue what I'll get (they all look very, very similar but they seem to have different innards depending on the vintage). There is likely something out there which would work perfectly (720p preferred for video capture reasons), but returning the item is always a hassle both for me and the seller.