Turrican miscellanies

[Edmond Dantes]

Well, you guys got me hooked on this series, now you're gonna endure a topic!

So... I was about to get the Genesis port of the first one, but then I read it doesn't have the ending (also I watched videos and found it annoying that the sound effects were louder). So how about that TG16 version?

[Obiwanshinobi]

Super Turrican for the NES (PAL only) deserves to be namedropped on the first page. No up for jump anymore, no fucking about.

[ptoing]

I take it you mean SNES?

[Friendly]

I take it you mean SNES?

I don't think so.

[ptoing]

Wow, did not know that existed. Just watched a bit of it on the tubes. Gameplay looks decent, music and sound was horrible D:

Super Turrican on the SNES is pretty awesome too tho.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

nes version

Doesn't look all that good, honestly. I hate the screen push distance (the distance you have to be at the edge to scroll forward), you can only see like an inch in front of you, seems lame. Prefer platformers that have you more or less centered.

[Friendly]

Super Turrican is one of very few NES games that were actually optimized for 50Hz; it plays way too fast on NTSC systems.

[Mortificator]

NES Super Turrican is mostly the first Turrican, with the arsenal replaced by Turrican II's and a few other tweaks made. I don't think it offers much to anybody who's played the first two games already.

Also, one of those tweaks was removing the timer, and I think timed stage-based exploration is one of the things that makes Turrican distinct from Metroid. It rewards being efficient and getting what goodies you can while still making it to the exit. With infinite time, you might as well just grab everything.

[Herr Schatten]

Also, one of those tweaks was removing the timer, and I think timed stage-based exploration is one of the things that makes Turrican distinct from Metroid. It rewards being efficient and getting what goodies you can while still making it to the exit. With infinite time, you might as well just grab everything.

Iirc, in all of Turrican I-III, there's only one level where it's impossible to grab everything before the timer runs out, and that's stage 1 in Turrican II. It's a good trade-off, though, because you can collect several one-ups in that stage, but only lose one life from the timer running out. (Ok, you also can't pick up everything in Turrican II's factory stage (the one with the dragon midboss), but that's because you have to choose one of two possible paths through the stage.)

Anyway, I agree that the timer adds a sense of urgency to the games, which is quite nice.

[Edmond Dantes]

one level where it's impossible to grab everything before the timer runs out

I dunno. I think maybe Turri can!

(Sorry, I've been waiting to use that one for days now)

*sigh* Well, apparently nobody on Amazon is selling the Amiga versions, and I can't buy on eBay because I need to get my Paypal account reactivated (unless you can use prepaid debit cards?) In any case, I haven't seen it there either.

Also, I read somewhere that the Genesis version of Turrican 1 was unlicensed and so will only work with Model 1 Genesis. Anyone confirm/deny?

[BrianC]

Also, I read somewhere that the Genesis version of Turrican 1 was unlicensed and so will only work with Model 1 Genesis. Anyone confirm/deny?

I don't think Turrican is one of those games that only works on early systems. My Genesis 1 has the copyright message on startup (and I read at sega16 that games like Budokan and Zany Golf only work on the Genesis 1 without the copyright message) and plays Turrican. I think it worked fine on my Genesis 2, as well. Super Off Road also works fine on the system, so it's only some unlicensed games that won't work. I also heard that some of these games can play on Genesis systems with the copyright screen using a Game Genie.

[Marc]

If you're not playing Turrican 1 on C64 or Turrican 2 on Amiga, you're not playing Turrican. The rest are just poor imitations.

[Edmond Dantes]

If you're not playing Turrican 1 on C64 or Turrican 2 on Amiga, you're not playing Turrican. The rest are just poor imitations.

For Turrican 1, is there any reason you prefer the C64 over the Amiga version? Seems to me the one with the awesome soundtrack is the hands-down winner.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

C64 Turrican 1 has an extra boss on the first flying stage and 100% more music ripped directly from the Transformers The Movie soundtrack. It was an astonishing achievement for the C64 back in the day but wasn't significantly better than the Amiga one. -And yes, Turrican 1's Amiga soundtrack was the best in the series.

C64 Turrican 2 seemed to play quite differently from the Amiga - lightning on the underwater stage, bosses doing a lot more stuff and weird music.