Is there any special reason to buy ports...

[Yield]

I really don't think earning money and buying shit is very rewarding at all,

I think it's a matter of buying in terms of value, something which today's young people aren't very well-versed in, and something which makes me think that this is...

Earning money and buying stuff is rewarding. What a shit topic.

...one shitty opinion.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

If you take the original Taito G-Net version of Night Raid and compare it to the later released PSX port, you'll see that the developer/publisher, Takumi, went the extra mile adding some extra value-added content (whereas with the G-Net iteration, it's just the game and absolutely no filler material whatsoever).

Same thing could be said with the DC port of Mars Matrix compared to the original CPS2 release of the same name from the likes of Capcom & Takumi.

Or even in the arcade puzzler genre with Tengen's Klax for the PC Engine/Turbografx-16 (with more user accessible content to explore/mess around with) compared to the original Atari Games Jamma PCB of Klax (has historgrams and saves both high scores and high score initials without the need for a backup battery whatsoever is a plus in my book) indeed. Of course, there are some advantages & disadvantages of arcade PCBs compared to their latter console ports -- but for the hard-core arcade PCB purists/hobbyists at heart, it's always going to be owning/playing the PCB version hands down for that unique arcade experience.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~

[CStarFlare]

A lot of the points people bring up - leaderboards, supporting the developer, extra modes - tend to apply mostly to recent releases. With older games, ports are often different than the arcade version due to the technological impossibility of making an arcade-accurate version for pre-32 bit consoles. While this might actually be an incentive for hardcore fans of a specific title to track them down to see what has changed, if you're looking for a game with any sort of competitive activity the port is generally not going to be a good option. So for most 16-bit and earlier games, the answer is "not really."

[chempop]

I really don't think earning money and buying shit is very rewarding at all,

I think it's a matter of buying in terms of value, something which today's young people aren't very well-versed in, and something which makes me think that this is...

Earning money and buying stuff is rewarding. What a shit topic.

...one shitty opinion.

Ever felt good after rewarding yourself by going out to eat at a decent restaurant after a long work week? Or are you too evolved to spend money to enjoy yourself? Buying shit can feel rewarding, especially if you have earned an honest income. It isn't the focus of my life, and most of my goals haven't been financially driven, but I'm not going to label basic consumerism as some kinda of terrible thing.

[Yield]

I really don't think earning money and buying shit is very rewarding at all,

I think it's a matter of buying in terms of value, something which today's young people aren't very well-versed in, and something which makes me think that this is...

Earning money and buying stuff is rewarding. What a shit topic.

...one shitty opinion.

Ever felt good after rewarding yourself by going out to eat at a decent restaurant after a long work week? Or are you too evolved to spend money to enjoy yourself? Buying shit can feel rewarding, especially if you have earned an honest income. It isn't the focus of my life, and most of my goals haven't been financially driven, but I'm not going to label basic consumerism as some kinda of terrible thing.

I wasn't criticising the fact that you were honing the matter of how spending money can feel satisfactory, I was criticising the fact that you stamped this topic "shit" when in fact the OP was asking a legit question about the added value of buying into ports.

Satisfactory purchases or not, I don't agree with buying things that confer no added value, and getting that sorted out through topics like these isn't irrational, contrary to your opinion.

[Mortificator]

Yeah, if you were to make a Venn diagram of shmup ports that don't screw anything up and have added features and shmups with good emulation in MAME, most of the games in the area where they overlap would be by Cave.

And if you diagrammed shmup ports whose developers are still in the industry and can be supported through your purchases and shmups with good emulation in MAME, virtually everything in the overlap would be by Cave.

So the answer to the OP is that there usually isn't much reason to buy ports of shooters that are emulated well in MAME, except for Cave games and a handful of others.

[MathU]

Home ports of arcade games often aren't 100% accurate, but arcade accuracy is not always the best thing. Often developers fix bugs and other issues in ports. Some examples include Darius Gaiden, where Taito fixed a major adaptive difficulty bug present in the arcade version, and Castle of Shikigami III, where Alfa System added in Director's Cut mode which gets rid of some exploits and a particular bug (I can't remember what but I think it has to do with Kohtaro) and is more faithful to their original design philosophy of "reactive" patterns that a player can handle without needing heavy memorization. I also seem to remember reading an interview about a particular Gradius game (at least I think it was Gradius) where the developer asked that people play the home version because there was a scoring goof in the arcade version he wasn't proud of.

[BIL]

^ Incidentally, R-Types (PS1) actually reproduces a score calculation bug from the first game's PCB, noted in the comp's manual. But of course the game runs at 60hz versus the AC's ~55hz, so it's technically inaccurate from the start. Still, interesting gesture.

I like console ports on 32-bit systems onward for the simplicity of switching on a console and getting the same facsimile of the PCB everyone else with the disc is playing, running as intended. I can overlook stuff like Raiden Project's difficulty differences with the PCBs since I have no illusions of them being 1:1 to begin with - even extremely well-regarded ports like Arika's PS2 DOJ and ESPGaluda aren't technically 100% accurate. Games that run on essentially identical hardware to the arcade like STV/Saturn and Naomi/DC are the exception, I suppose, but even there I don't pretend I'm playing RSG or Border Down in the arcade.

Stuff on pre-32 bit consoles obviously won't be even in the same ballpark generally, but they can still be a lot of fun in their own right. Ports of any generation that include awesome exclusives or additions like Hyper Duel SS and Slap Fight MD need no explanation, of course.