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What was your first Arcade Perfect console/PC port?

R

Reiko

Banned
In an era where gamers usually got immensely graphically downgraded ports of arcade games, it was a welcome surprise to play a arcade perfect version of X-men Vs. Street Fighter on the Sega Saturn. No loading, tag team intact, all frames of animation, no slowdown... (Even with 4 Juggernauts on Screen), and a turbo setting that's faster than the arcade.

Well as long as you bought the 4MB ram cart alongside it.

Any experiences you would like to share GAF?
 
Mortal Kombat II on the SNES was the first game that I would rather play at home than the arcade.
 
nemss said:
Mortal Kombat II on the SNES was the first game that I would rather play at home than the arcade.
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Sound isn't as good (and a few effects are missing), graphics are downgraded and sprites are smaller, slower, certain combos don't work anymore, etc.

I mean the SNES port was a fantastic port, especially for its time, but come on here. It doesn't have anything on the arcade version.
 
I always found myself preferring the console versions of games, especially sega games. The arcades were always too fast for me (afterburner, etc)
 
Quackula said:
Sound isn't as good (and a few effects are missing), graphics are downgraded and sprites are smaller, slower, certain combos don't work anymore, etc.

I mean the SNES port was a fantastic port, especially for its time, but come on here. It doesn't have anything on the arcade version.
Click to expand...

Back when the SNES/Genesis were all you had for home console ports, it was an astounding achievement. Sure, it ran a little slower than the arcade, but it was probably 85% intact.
 
nemss said:
Back when the SNES/Genesis were all you had for home console ports, it was an astounding achievement. Sure, it ran a little slower than the arcade, but it was probably 85% intact.
Click to expand...

Oh no, it's a good port, definitely, don't get me wrong there. Just kinda sounded like you were saying that the 16-bit ports were superior to the arcade version or something.
 
I've never been too fond of arcade games.
Honestly, even in times where they still showed some muscles on the hardware side (early '90s) I always thought home gaming was leaving them behind in terms of complexity, depth, size, scope... And often in originality, too.
So I can't really say I have vivid memories of my "halleluia" moments about playing arcade ports on PC or consoles.

That said, I have some vague memory of being fairly impressed with how good Super Street Fighter II turbo was on PC... But that's probably more related to how awful the SF2 vanilla port was.
 
In terms of arcade *PERFECT* I'd say things like Crazy taxi, House of the dead 2, Virtua striker 2000 and much much more.. Sega were the kings of the arcade ports with the Dreamcast. I'm still gutted that in all of those quality ports, Sega Rally 2 and Virtua Fighter 3 tb were shit.
 
neptunes said:
Sega was always providing us with those faithful arcade ports.

Daytona, Virtua Fighter 3tb
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What Daytona port was faithful at the time? And iirc 3tb wasn't a close to perfect port.

Edit: unless there were PC ports I missed?
 
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
I've never been too fond of arcade games.
Honestly, even in times where they still showed some muscles on the hardware side (early '90s) I always thought home gaming was leaving them behind in terms of complexity, depth, size, scope...
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They weren't left behind, they just weren't gunning for that to begin with. Just pure fun factor and coin munching. Obviously there was never going to be Final Fantasy or Baldur's Gate arcade or something. The arcade equivalent of the latter would probably be the Capcom D&D games which perfectly illustrate the difference in direction, intention, etc.
 
CrazyTaxi_cover.png


So good.
 
Bucket-o-roadkill said:
In terms of arcade *PERFECT* I'd say things like Crazy taxi, House of the dead 2, Virtua striker 2000 and much much more.. Sega were the kings of the arcade ports with the Dreamcast. I'm still gutted that in all of those quality ports, Sega Rally 2 and Virtua Fighter 3 tb were shit.
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Fighting Vipers 2 too.

That got fucked up more than VF3TB
 
Alextended said:
What Daytona port was faithful at the time? And iirc 3tb wasn't a close to perfect port.

Edit: unless there were PC ports I missed?
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As far as game play goes, the Saturn version of Datona was pretty faithful. But graphically, it suffered from sub 20 FPS and has sever pop-up and draw distance issues. Daytona CCE on the Saturn was much better in the graphics department, but always felt off to me because the vehicle handing. Daytona 2001 on the Dreamcast surpassed the original Model 2 game in visuals and content, but had twitchy controls when you used the default DC controller. But the controls could be tweaked to make it feel a bit closer to the arcade game.

The first truly accurate port, was the XBLA/ PSN version that was released in 2011.

But as for games that made me say: "wow, I am really playing the arcade version"... I would say Street Fighter II on the SNES. Looking back at it in retrospect, it was not arcade perfect, but at the time, it really did feel like the arcade game. I would also say Turtles in Time... but actually Turtles in Time on the SNES was the superior version because it had additional levels and bonus stages, even though the Arcade game did have bigger sprites and better audio. Final Fight CD on the Sega CD also impressed me for its time, much more than the SNES version ever did. It felt pretty arcade accurate despite having a lower colour pallet and different soundtrack.

I would also have to say, just about any Capcom fighting game on the Saturn that uses the Ram cartridge.

jufonuk said:
dreamcast naomi games
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And this too.
 
Alextended said:
They weren't left behind, they just weren't gunning for that to begin with. Just pure fun factor and coin munching.
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Which translates into the same exact thing, as far as I'm concerned: being left behind.

Their (in some way even obligatory and inevitable) focus on quick, simple and fun gameplay experiences, when home gaming was already experimenting with far more complex ideas and mechanics, made them far less appealing to me.

Still, I played a lot of arcade games. They were fun and they had a clear edge in terms of visuals, but they were good to spend ten minutes here and there while chitchatting with friends.
In the end of the day, my general feel even back then was that the very good stuff was waiting for me at home, on my home systems.
 
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
Which translates into the same exact thing, as far as I'm concerned: being left behind.

Their (in some way even obligatory and inevitable) focus on quick, simple and fun gameplay experiences, when home gaming was already experimenting with far more complex ideas and mechanics, made them far less appealing to me.

Still, I played a lot of arcade games. They were fun and they had a clear edge in terms of visuals, but they were good to spend ten minutes here and there while chitchatting with friends.
In the end of the day, my general feel even back then was that the very good stuff was waiting for me at home, on my home systems.
Click to expand...

Better hardware could have opened up new gameplay experiences. Imagine if Sega Saturn and Playstation had similar power to Model 2 hardware.

Those early 3D games would have aged better.

You can see how all of the Model 2 arcade games still hold up today visually.
 
Tekken 1&2

The only difference was that arcade generated eg an echo on some stages and playstation used prerecorded samples.
 
Reiko said:
Better hardware could have opened up new gameplay experiences. Imagine if Sega Saturn and Playstation had similar power to Model 2 hardware.

Those early 3D games would have aged better.

You can see how all of the Model 2 arcade games still hold up today visually.
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And your point is...?
Because the obvious superiority of arcade hardware (and visuals) at the time was essentially the first point I conceded to them since my first post in this thread, I'm not even trying to deny it.

I'm just saying that arcade cabinets started to lose most of their appeal to me as soon as home gaming stopped trying to replicate them on the same genres and "started to do its own things", so to say.
 
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
Which translates into the same exact thing, as far as I'm concerned: being left behind.
Click to expand...
I was just emphasizing that, yeah, it's just as far as you're concerned, the games still rock for loads of other people who don't only look for engrossing depth but can also enjoy fun in whatever way that comes depending on the circumstances, mood, whatever else. That's all. They don't have an objective flaw that is lack of depth or something (not that any such complaint is applicable to every single arcade game either, generalizations don't bring the best arguments) when for someone else the same thing looked at from a different angle and taste is an asset (instant frantic fun via twitch skills etc). Like I wouldn't fault a racing game, sim or otherwise, for lacking character development or a turn based SRPG for lacking in action and proclaim the former was left behind by Planescape: Torment and the latter left behind by Devil May Cry or something. I feel it's the wrong term.
 
TucoBenedictoPacifico said:
I've never been too fond of arcade games.
Honestly, even in times where they still showed some muscles on the hardware side (early '90s) I always thought home gaming was leaving them behind in terms of complexity, depth, size, scope... And often in originality, too.
So I can't really say I have vivid memories of my "halleluia" moments about playing arcade ports on PC or consoles.
Click to expand...

I love arcade games, but there's something to what you say, for sure. Back when I first started gaming on the NES, it was incapable of closely duplicating arcade games, and they were often adapted and the results were often way more interesting and involving, and became the most enduring versions of those games. Bionic Commando, Contra, the entire Double Dragon series, Rygar, Punch Out, and especially Ninja Gaiden. I even liked the NES Strider more.
 
I'd have to say Williams Arcade's Greatest Hits on PlayStation was the first time that I truly had arcade quality at home. It wasn't a port or conversion, but rather emulation of 6 classic Williams arcade games. Although it ran the actual arcade code on an emulator, it wasn't quite "arcade perfect", since the video emulation dropped a few lines of resolution...but apart from that, it was extremely good for a product that came out in 1996.
 
GrayFoxPL said:
Tekken 1&2

The only difference was that arcade generated eg an echo on some stages and playstation used prerecorded samples.
Click to expand...

The arcade fighters have more polys and the textures (especially on the floors) are better. But still close enough on the home version to make your jaw drop. Ditto SFEX and Soul Edge.

Mine was probably HotD2 or SFIII. God bless you, Dreamcast.
 
Street Fighter II was the first game that I spent enough time with in the arcades to really be able to notice how close they came with the SNES version and appreciate it on that level.
 
I miss my Saturn so much. So many great arcade ports. My first game is same as OP, too bad I didn't have decent sticks back then.
 
There's a purity to arcade game design. It's gaming without the fat. You have to understand the game instantly, the controls feeling intuitive at first touch. The graphics can't be over-laden with stupid full-screen post-processing filters that blur your vision. The action has to stay 60fps smooth.

A lot of shallow games can be born out of this, sure.

But in the hands of the best designers, arcade games shine as endlessly replayable and fun.

To Far Away Times said:
Soul Calibur, probably.
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That wasn't arcade perfect in the slightest.

edit - beaten
 
MrCunningham said:
But as for games that made me say: "wow, I am really playing the arcade version"... I would say Street Fighter II on the SNES. Looking back at it in retrospect, it was not arcade perfect, but at the time, it really did feel like the arcade game.
Click to expand...

One thing that made it actually a little better than the arcade version..... The player vs player code! Players couldn't use the same characters at the same time on the arcade version.... Not until Champion Edition.
 
To Far Away Times said:
Soul Calibur, probably.
Click to expand...

I was going to say this.

But then I remembered the Saturn got some older arcade ports too, and probably the 16 bit systems got some older 80s arcade perfect ports too.

I'll have to think about my collection a bit more.

It might be Ms. Pacman on the Sega Genesis. Was that arcade perfect?
 
Die Hard Arcade for me. (That was Arcade perfect, wasn't it? I certainly remember it playing pretty close to the arcade version.)

And yeah, pretty much every Capcom fighter with the exception of Marvel Super Heroes was pretty great on Saturn. Shame that it took until a few months ago to get a good home console version of MSH, though.
 
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