Are the ports worth it?

Jamolos · Post by **Jamolos** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:09 pm

Hi. I'm an almost total beginner at STG's, and want to invest in a decent collection of supposed masterpieces. The only thing that's keeping my Ebay trigger finger in check is my suspicion of the quality of older ports, like the Saturn Dodonpachi version. After all, back then arcade games were run on hardware far more powerful than Saturn and its equalivents, right?
So, my question to the expeirenced elite is thus if there are any truly inferior ports of the more well known quality STG's.

/Jamolos

Mortificator · Post by **Mortificator** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:43 pm

I see the East Meets West thread is already having an impact.

Anyway, if you look at the board's FAQ you'll see that several threads exist comparing the Dodonpachi ports.

But if you've really never tried shooters before, it couldn't hurt to emulate some of them in MAME & sundry. After all, you might end up hating them. There are a lot of freaks out there.

Jamolos · Post by **Jamolos** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 6:51 pm

Thanks for the answer.
I've played Ikaruga for ages and really appreciate it, but of course you're right in that it's wise to use MAME initially.

kengou · Post by **kengou** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 7:05 pm

Ikaruga plays pretty differently from most bullet-hell Cave games. I personally love both Cave and Treasure styles, but some people dislike or the other or both while still enjoying the genre. Definitely try out stuff in MAME first if at all possible before buying anything. On MAME, for instance, you can play perfectly fine versions of Dodonpachi, ESP. Ra. De., Dangun Feveron, Guwange or Progear, which are some damn fine Cave games.

moozooh · Post by **moozooh** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 8:42 pm

kengou wrote:Ikaruga plays pretty differently from most bullet-hell Cave games.

Because it's not really a bullet hell game to begin with. You don't dodge bullets there, you eat through them about 95% of the time, instead focusing on chaining and eating more bullets.

grovsnus · Post by **grovsnus** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:40 pm

Chances are you'll never play the games on their native hardware, so I wouldn't worry about whether or not the ports are 100% arcade perfect. Just enjoy them. Ninety nine and a half will do you no wrong.

PROMETHEUS · Post by **PROMETHEUS** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 9:50 pm

Mortificator wrote:But if you've really never tried shooters before, it couldn't hurt to emulate some of them in MAME & sundry. After all, you might end up hating them. There are a lot of freaks out there.

DODONPACHI ARRRGGLLGGLLLL

-Bridget- · Post by **-Bridget-** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:07 pm

grovsnus wrote:Chances are you'll never play the games on their native hardware, so I wouldn't worry about whether or not the ports are 100% arcade perfect. Just enjoy them. Ninety nine and a half will do you no wrong.

Definitely agreed.

There's some games where, that's really just gonna be the only way to play them.

And being honest, in some cases, complaints about a port can be.... well, nitpicky.

Mushihime-sama is a good example... I get sick of hearing complaints about this one. No, it's not an absolutely pixel-perfect port. How could it be? It's the freaking PS2, weakest of all of the currently available systems, and the only one that has some sort of problem with sprites.

But as long as Im playing this on the right TV, one that isnt totally-craptastic, I have no problems with it at all. And Mushihime is one of my favorite shmups ever. But I've never played the original arcade unit, and likely never will. So I've no complaints with the port, myself. If there's a pixel over here that's slightly less purple than it should be, Im not gonna scream "DOOOOOOM" and throw the game across the room.

Lol, sorry, maybe exaggerating a bit, but I just woke up and Im still sorta groggy......

ANYWAY, I say, use Mame or something, to give you a chance to try out games by different developers.

For example, for Cave, if you try out, like, DoDonPachi, Guwange, Progear, whatever, on Mame, and you like them alot, there's a good chance you might like at least 3 of the 4 PS2 ports (ESPGaluda, DoDonPachi Dai-ou-jou, Mushihime). The 4th being Ibara, plays more like a Raizing game, so not for everyone.

The home versions *can* be quite expensive.... particularly when you gotta import them..... so mess with the ones you can find emulated first.

lgb · Post by **lgb** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:11 pm

grovsnus wrote:Chances are you'll never play the games on their native hardware, so I wouldn't worry about whether or not the ports are 100% arcade perfect. Just enjoy them. Ninety nine and a half will do you no wrong.

*nod*

I've had Ikaruga for the GC for pretty much forever, and I don't mind it. Especially because they took a Gradius Advance approach (and probably Gradius V too); they put in that nice help thing. As long as it has the actual GAME in it, I'm good.

it290 · Post by **it290** » Mon Mar 03, 2008 10:35 pm

Mushihime-sama is a good example... I get sick of hearing complaints about this one. No, it's not an absolutely pixel-perfect port. How could it be?

Because the previous two Cave ports were essentially pixel-perfect?

gameoverDude · Post by **gameoverDude** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:13 am

Jamolos wrote:Hi. I'm an almost total beginner at STG's, and want to invest in a decent collection of supposed masterpieces. The only thing that's keeping my Ebay trigger finger in check is my suspicion of the quality of older ports, like the Saturn Dodonpachi version. After all, back then arcade games were run on hardware far more powerful than Saturn and its equalivents, right?
So, my question to the expeirenced elite is thus if there are any truly inferior ports of the more well known quality STG's.

/Jamolos

The arcade Dodonpachi hardware is actually less powerful than the Saturn, but some sacrifices had to be made to fit it into the Saturn's RAM limit (mainly the pixelated explosions and IIRC downsampled sound). It seems a bit fast compared to the arcade one for some reason.

E.S.P. Ra De, Guwange, and Progear could've been great on Saturn with a 4M RAM cart- but they would've suffered some serious compromises if someone attempted to port these games without it.

Post by **BulletMagnet** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:46 am

gameoverDude wrote:It seems a bit fast compared to the arcade one for some reason.

You sure you're not thinking about the PS1 version? You have to turn the "wait" option on to play it at the correct speed - the Saturn version seems about right in that area, at least to my recollection.

neorichieb1971 · Post by **neorichieb1971** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 3:55 am

Mushi is not a case of a pixel being more purple

The game is in blurro vision, its just not sharp and to me it impacts how I play. If the screen is blurry it strains my eyes more and I find myself 2nd guessing my mark.

It will possibly be my next PCB purchase, but only if I get the kit as the artwork in that game is just awesome.

I have DDP DOJ and Mushi ports on PS2, and DDP DOJ is lightyears ahead of its lazy port sister.

charlie chong · Post by **charlie chong** » Tue Mar 04, 2008 10:16 am

i had dodonpachi pcb running in my cab then i tried the saturn version in my cab also straight after.. saturn version definitely feels a tad faster and also a bit more cramped for some reason but this may be down to the increase in speed.

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Are the ports worth it?

Are the ports worth it?

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