What is your top 10 Master System, Genesis, Sega CD and / or 32 x games ?

**FuturePrimitive** · 03-08-2013, 08:10 PM

It might be easier to choose 10 games for each system! Haha.

**A Black Falcon** · 03-08-2013, 10:04 PM

Originally Posted by Barone

I've said it many times before and will say it again since ABF is totally blind and will never change any of his nonsense comments: OutRunners run at the very same framerate of OutRun and Super Hang-On, which is 20 fps at max speed.
OutRunners "plays fairly smoothly" only in ABF's mind, while the other games are "horribly choppy" in his smashed world despite all of them running at 20 fps and equally choppy. OutRunners also has terribly scratchy voices and sfx, to not talk about its reduced view distance. Oh, well.

Um, choppyness isn't really about framerate. That's a factor, but it's not the most important one. The much bigger issue is the quality of the fake scaling, and the fake scaling in games like Super Hang-On, Outrun, Super Thunder Blade, and Space Harrier II is almost headache-inducingly terrible. The poor framerates in those games don't help either, but with smoother scrolling, they'd be much more playable. As they are though, they're some of the least fun, most disappointing games on the system. When the Master System versions of games like Space Harrier, Outrun, and Thunder Blade are significantly smoother and better-playing than the Genesis versions, you know that you have a problem. I just tried to play Super Hang-On (Genesis) again... seriously, playing that thing for too long might give me a headache, it's so horribly choppy thanks to the mediocre framerate and abysmal fake scaling.

As for OutRunners, it's not perfectly smooth (the scaling is still a bit choppy), but it's better than the other Sega games I mentioned earlier, and when combined with the games fairly simple track designs (the focus of the challenge is on the other racer, not on the courses), it's good enough.

Outrun 2019, though, really is in a class of its own here. It's the only one of them that actually both looks and plays legitimately well. For earlier games that play as well as that, you need to go to third parties -- as I mentioned, games like Roadblasters, or for another (not quite as good as Roadblasters or Outrun 2019, but quite decent) example Burning Force, show that you could do competent scaling on the Genesis, even in its earlier years. It's really unfortunate that it took Sega so long to figure that out.

[Put the next ABF's wall of self-assertive text and no proof here]

Stop being so insulting and mean, or I'll stop replying to your posts. Acting like that is not okay.

**promking** · 03-08-2013, 10:46 PM

1) Phantasy Star IV
2) Streets of Rage 2
3) Musha
4) Sonic and Knuckles
5) Golden Axe 2
6) Streets of Rage 1
7) Snatcher
8) Sonic 2
9) Android Assault
10) Toe Jam and Earl 1

**profholt82** · 03-09-2013, 04:30 AM

Black Falcon,

I agree that the original Outrun seems somewhat choppy, but that is actually similar to how the arcade game runs. I'm not sure if it is necessarily the frame rate so much as how the game plays. I think that's just how it's programmed. I like the way the car handles and the game runs. With Outrunners, I felt like the gameplay and "choppiness" was similar to Outrun, but the split screen view was not compensated for. The track just seems unforgiving and with a limited view I found the game to be not fun. I haven't played it in a few years though, so I'm going to give it another whirl soon. As for 2019, I still don't like it as much as the original, but I think it's a great game. I agree that it is smooth, but I never found Outrun to be unsmooth necessarily, so much as a little jerky, but that is part of that game's charm. It's not meant to be a silky smooth racing simulator, it's just a faithful port to a classic arcade game.

**A Black Falcon** · 03-09-2013, 05:48 AM

Originally Posted by profholt82

Black Falcon,

I agree that the original Outrun seems somewhat choppy, but that is actually similar to how the arcade game runs.

That's not true, Genesis Outrun is much choppier than the arcade game. And a smooth port could be done -- play the (Japan-only) Turbografx version for a good comparison -- it's impressively smooth for a fake-scaling game and plays great, quite the opposite of the prettier to look at but bad to actually play Genesis version.

I'm not sure if it is necessarily the frame rate so much as how the game plays. I think that's just how it's programmed. I like the way the car handles and the game runs.

Outrun is a great game, yes, but the Genesis version is a poor version of the game.

With Outrunners, I felt like the gameplay and "choppiness" was similar to Outrun, but the split screen view was not compensated for.

Yes it was. As I said, the tracks are a lot simpler than Outrun tracks. It's not all that hard to beat Outrunners... just turn as the track starts turning in front of you, and you'll mostly be fine. The main challenge is trying to stay ahead of the other car. Sure, the game gets harder as you go, but it's never as hard as the original Outrun, and that's not all bad -- Outrun is a very difficult game. And I like the 1-on-1 versus style, it's not bad. Plus, with the computer on the screen, it can't blatantly cheat like normal computer opponents in a racing game often would! (This same benefit is seen in Top Gear -- the AI car on the lower half of the screen is the only one that doesn't cheat.)

The track just seems unforgiving and with a limited view I found the game to be not fun. I haven't played it in a few years though, so I'm going to give it another whirl soon.

You do have to basically start turning as soon as you can see stuff, but it is doable.

As for 2019, I still don't like it as much as the original, but I think it's a great game. I agree that it is smooth, but I never found Outrun to be unsmooth necessarily, so much as a little jerky, but that is part of that game's charm. It's not meant to be a silky smooth racing simulator, it's just a faithful port to a classic arcade game.

It's not at all faithful to the arcade original, in terms of smoothness or scaling. Not even close. And that makes a big impact on the gameplay -- the Genesis version is even harder than many other versions because of the choppy scaling. And I don't think anything about choppy scaling is charming. For instance, Space Harrier is one of my favorite games (see where the 32X version placed on that list, for instance), but Space Harrier 2 is probably one of the very worst games that I own for the Genesis... that was one of the first Genesis games I bought after getting the system, and it's just awful thanks to the terrible scaling. (Space Harrier for Turbografx, by the way, is reasonably smooth as expected. But even the Master System version is better than the Genesis... same as Hang-On, on the SMS v. Genesis point.)

As for 2019, I think it's absolutely outstanding. It's probably my second favorite Outrun game overall, after only Outrun 2006... it is easier than the original Outrun (in almost any of its forms), but it's so much fun! Plus I love stuff like the multi-level roads, the turbo, etc... and of course i love futuristic racing games, so that 2019 is set in the future with futuristic cars is a big plus too.

Oh yeah, and 2019 has a really good soundtrack as well! One of the series' best for sure. The only thing it doesn't have is saving to save all of those best times that you can enter in pointlessly and have vanish as soon as you turn the system off.

**Barone** · 03-09-2013, 07:32 AM