360 ports

[burgerkingdiamond]

I was wondering just how good are the ports of Ketsui, Futari, Galuda II, DDP DOJ, etc... in comparison to the PCB's?
I live in the US, and have never played a real PCB of anything (except Raiden II which I recently acquired). I found out about the "modern" jap shmups through
DDP, DP, Batrider, Garegga on MAME. After that I built a MAME cabinet and have been hooked.

I recently bought a Korean candy cab, tated the monitor, and modified it to play JAMMA boards and 360 games. I have Futari and Galuda II, and I'm wondering if I am
really missing much? I know that the really hardcore purist will always say that the PCB is better. And I guess that is true from a collector's stand point, because we
attach meaning to owning the actual hardware. But from an objective viewpoint, based on gameplay, and the fact that I'm playing on a cab with a tated monitor and real sticks (still need to upgrade those..), am I really missing out by playing the ports?

[Shuurin]

Overall I don't think owning the pcb is needed for any of the 360 ports except for maybe Ketsui. Despite the port being very well done it runs slightly faster than the original pcb. To anyone who hasn't played both extensively you'd never be able to tell the difference. So I feel its quite minor and doesn't warrant Ketsui's pcb price tag unless you are a die hard fan and need all the slowness you can get for maximum scoring opportunities.

So stick with the ports, heck of a lot cheaper on the wallet for sure. If you ever want to get into older stuff though, pcb might be your best bet for the best experience.

[t0yrobo]

The only significant difference I know of is the US version of Deathsmiles running fast and having slowdown removed. I'm sure there's other differences from the PCBs, but they're small and for the price difference I think it's easily ignorable.

[agustusx]

As bad as the DDP DOJ port is, if your not going to loop the game you won't run into its worst bugs. If you have a PS2 then that version is probably a better buy. However with that said the 360 DOJ port has serviced me just fine once I got past the menus and such. With DOJ and Ketsui you'll need a J360.

If your first experience with Futari and Galuda II are the 360 versions you won't miss the PCB. Just remember the PCB's don't have the practice and arrange modes you get with the ports and still cost substantially more.

Be sure to upgrade your sticks though

[gray117]

They're good; the differences, even when you notice them, will not stop you thinking these are v fine games - its just as a purist/higher end scorer you may want the pcb.

For ease of use [no pcb swapping/menus (except ddp )] I'd think that if you could afford the pcbs you'd get the 360 ports for 'quick plays' anyway.

Its a shame they weren't just download - which would mean you wouldn't even have to swap a disk in/out [even when installed the dvd disk is checked in order to run].