Retro Gaming - The Bear and Badger

hunk

The 32X port of Doom is a technical marvel, especially running patched. I'm sure the Saturn can better it significantly considering the architectural similarities.

Questor

This will probably be a bit controversial, but the MegaDrive port of Golden Axe was great for its time - it felt like you were playing the arcade game

See also MegaDrive Ghouls n Ghosts

Unlikely

Not controversial at all. Golden Axe remains great.

retroking1981

I know it's not retro but theres a few Switch ports that are considered very impressive for the hardware.

Skyrim, Wolfenstein, Hellblade and The Witcher 3 spring to mind.

retroking1981

Regarding SNES Smash T.V. port...

hunk wrote:

Best 16-bit twinstick shooter ever. Not that there were many to begin with.

Should have been a ton more though, it still blows my mind other games didn't implement the same controls, they would have been so much better.

Zombies Ate My Neighbours springs to mind.

poprock

Llamatron was better, in my opinion. Used both joystick ports on my Atari ST at once to be a twin-stick game. Obviously wasn’t released on consoles though.

Moot_Geeza

Retroheads should check out Xeno Crisis, was released on Megadrive in 2019 but arrived on modern consoles too. Was on gamepass for a while, only played solo but seemed perfect fit for co-op (which is an option). Good game.

In a weird turn of events a mate of mine was chatting to a friend of a friend a few weeks ago and it turns out he made it. I ended up texting over my review and got a digital high five. Although I only gave it a [7]. I did say it would've scored in the 90s in the 90s though. Then he presumably edged away slowly.

Moot_Geeza

retroking1981

That's been in my Switch wish list for ages, doesn't seem to go in any sales.

davyK

Questor wrote:

This will probably be a bit controversial, but the MegaDrive port of Golden Axe was great for its time - it felt like you were playing the arcade game See also MegaDrive Ghouls n Ghosts

Splendid ports. Ghouls and Ghosts is particularly good.

SNES UN Squadron (aka Area 88) was/is highly regarded. Gameplay wise is better than the arcade as it has a bit more added to it.

Moot_Geeza

retroking1981 wrote:

That's been in my Switch wish list for ages, doesn't seem to go in any sales.

I might start putting 50p's in a jar so I can 'justify' splurging on the non-budgers every Christmas. I've started to hate a handful of games I've not played simply because they never see discounts. Devil Engine is a massive dickhead, for a start.

Blue Swirl

Moot_Geeza wrote:

You might be thinking of Quake, the Saturn version of that was a bit of a marvel.

Ah, you might be right there.

EvilRedEye wrote:

Also, there was an FPGA-driven port for the EverDrive Pro for the MD. Could be thinking of one of those?

When I'm confusing stuff from the 90s with stuff from a few months back, please take me to the home. I'll be happier there. Just promise me you'll come and see me on Christmas.

davyK wrote:

Saturn Doom is a bit of a rabbit hole. There was a brilliant version of it better then the PS1 port. Was more or less the full PC version. It was given the boot by Carmack because of some graphical effect he didn't like. He later admitted he shouldn't have rejected it. The result was the crippled port that the Saturn got.

I didn't know that, that's awesome. In a sad kinda way.

retroking1981 wrote:

I know it's not retro but theres a few Switch ports that are considered very impressive for the hardware. Skyrim, Wolfenstein, Hellblade and The Witcher 3 spring to mind.

Add the modern Dooms to that. There's a reason they're referred to as "the impossible ports".

davyK

The Saturn version of Exhumed was a marvel. Not sure about Quake or Duke Nukem. I had the Duke Nukem game and it seemed pretty good. It was a long time ago though.

davyK

Lost Saturn Doom port

Moot_Geeza

Exhumed was superb. Still one of my favourite FPS games. These days it'd be described as a Metroidvania too, there was quite a lot to it once you got going.

Unlikely

Yeah, I loved Exhumed. Ace music, level design and graphics. Spent ages watching fireballs cast blue light on the walls as they passed.

The were a load of Developer Dolls to find in insanely tricky-to-access places. I think I only ever found one.

Moot_Geeza

Unlikely wrote:

Spent ages watching fireballs cast blue light on the walls as they passed.

This was me too.

Unlikely wrote:

Thre were a load of Developer Dolls to find in insanely tricky-to-access places. I think I only ever found one.

I found a few, then the official Saturn magazine printed a locations guide and I got the rest. For a while it was one of my biggest gaming achievements - even following instructions some of them were hugely difficult to get without dying (which meant restarting the whole stage iirc).

It unlocked something called Loboflight mode, which was neat enough but no Death Tank (the reward for finding them all in the American release).

davyK

Exhumed unlocked Death Tank Zwei if it found a Duke Nukem game save (or was it the other way 'round?).

davyK

That Retro Gamer SNES article has me checking out the carts I have in that list.

Dear me, RType III is stunning. Just spent an hour or so there struggling to get to the level 3 boss. So , so good.

retroking1981

Yeah great game.

The Mega Drive and PC Engine get all the plaudits when it comes to shoot em ups, but I'd say the top 5 SNES ones hold their own against the best from those.

Main problem with the SNES is after those top tier handful there's a huge drop off, MD/PCE had much more.

Moot_Geeza

davyK wrote:

Exhumed unlocked Death Tank Zwei if it found a Duke Nukem game save (or was it the other way 'round?).

It was on the Duke Nukem 3D disc and an Exhumed save unlocked it. Originally it was included in Exhumed but got the boot for the PAL release. I think. Questioning my memory now.

Edit: Looked it up - Death Tank for the US release of Powerslave, omitted from Exhumed for PAL territories. Death Tank Zwei on the Duke Nukem disc, unlocked by having an Exhumed or Quake save.

nick_md

Saturn Duke is the one that does that weird leaning/tilting effect rather than perspective trickery of the original, right? If so I can't ever unsee it once seen, don't think I could play the game because of it.

davyK

retroking1981 wrote:

Yeah great game. The Mega Drive and PC Engine get all the plaudits when it comes to shoot em ups, but I'd say the top 5 SNES ones hold their own against the best from those. Main problem with the SNES is after those top tier handful there's a huge drop off, MD/PCE had much more.

Aye. RType III, Super Aleste, Pop n Twinbee, Un Squadron and Parodius are great. But 2nd tier is pretty poor. Super SWIV aka Firepower 2000 is a nice 2nd tier shooter. One of my favourites in the day. SNES got Super Dropzone too which is quality but a bit old school even for SNES.

retroking1981

Yeah that's about the lot, I'd add Axelay and Aero Fighters to that list but honestly can't think of any others. There are a few Parodius sequels though, buy they only came out in Japan.

Gradus III and Super R-Type suffered from being early releases, they would have made the list had the developers had a bit more experience with the hardware.

Blue Swirl

Exhumed was always on my list of games to play, I'd totally forgotten about it. I may have to see if I can track that down on Steam or GOG.

davyK

retroking1981 wrote:

Yeah that's about the lot, I'd add Axelay and Aero Fighters to that list but honestly can't think of any others. There are a few Parodius sequels though, buy they only came out in Japan. Gradus III and Super R-Type suffered from being early releases, they would have made the list had the developers had a bit more experience with the hardware.

Forgot about Axelay but I have yet to play that. In the day it struck me as a game that relied on its graphical tricks so I avoided it. I should really try it emulated.

I avoided G3 and Super RType due to tech issues in reviews. They were plagued by slowdown from what I remember even though they looked very good. I think there's a G3 ROM that fixes much of its slowdown.

hunk

Axelay is technically an audiovisual tour de force by Konami. Level design is very similar to Gradius3 but the weapons and power up systems are simplified. Like Contra3/hardcorps this is Konami in its 16bit prime and a must play for shooter fans.

Blue Swirl

Blue Swirl wrote:

Exhumed was always on my list of games to play, I'd totally forgotten about it. I may have to see if I can track that down on Steam or GOG.

Not available... yet. There's a Windows 8-11 port coming this year, rejigged on the KEX Engine, which powered the re-releases of Doom 64, Quake, Turok, etc.

Blue Swirl

Moot_Geeza

Yes please. Hopefully they add save states.

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