Worst arcade console ports

Mendel

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Since we seem to be including not only consoles but also computers:

Out Run for the Atari ST and the Amiga. The horror. C64 version is better even if its not accurate at all, at least it has decent framerate.
U.N. Squadron for the Amiga. It just didnエt get the attention it deserved. The music is horrible!


with regards to SFa2 on SNES, you need to give it some slack. Itエs basically running on a wrong generation of console there. Normally the game would not fit on a SNES cartridge. They actually had to include a special chip on cart that uncompresses data on the fly. It is because of that uncompressing that you see the pauses you are talking about.
 
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Psygnosis8

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Oh man. Forgot about that one. Not only want the game horrible, it was a complete deviation from the source.



I actually kinda like it. I was really good at it as a kid.

For my vote, it's gotta be 1942 on the NES. Micronics trash at its finest, and so poorly balanced it's heinously boring. It's just 3 planes...3 planes...3 planes...red planes...3 planes...
 

Sikleflaming

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In a general defense of my position that a2 is a bad port, I admit (and said as much in my post) that it's an incredible marvel that a2 was even on the SNES, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't play terribly. I'm sure there are far far worse ports of fighting games, but for gods sake the psx version of a2 was already out when they released the SNES version. If they knew the hardware could barely handle it why did they make the port at all?

Like I get that there are far worse, but people are hurling around darkstalkers psx and even a2 psx, and I maintain that the SNES port of a2 is far worse than either of those.

Edit:Also someone mentioned dragons lair NES, so I wanted to add that Space Ace SNES is another terrible butchering of Don Bluth's wonderful work
 
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Dr Shroom

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Since we seem to be including not only consoles but also computers:

Out Run for the Atari ST and the Amiga. The horror. C64 version is better even if its not accurate at all, at least it has decent framerate.
U.N. Squadron for the Amiga. It just didnエt get the attention it deserved. The music is horrible!

Both Out Run and Space Harrier are just lazy shit ports on the Amiga even, the PC Engine version are better while running on a weaker system. It all comes down to the programmer.

Honorable shit port mentions: Street Fighter and Street Fighter 2 both on Amiga and C64. Same goes for Final Fight.
 

Electric Grave

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i actually like the lesser ports of games. although i still think the snes should of got a port of super turbo instead of alpha 2, alpha 2 was a godsend to all the people who was late to the 32bit era. and i've said this in other threads, but snes final fight is probably my favourite version of the game. final fight cd is sweet, to.

ST on the SNES could have been great. Super was great.

Alpha3 on GBA has a lot of A2 SNES sprite work in it. Same for GBA ST Revival. SNES A2 has better frame rate than the 1st CPS2 PSX Ports.
 

Psygnosis8

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Woah woah. Viewpoint on the genny is far better than one would think. PSX port is garbage.

Have you played the X68K version? There's no excuse for how bad it is.

And SMS Daimakaimura is pretty good, actually. It plays fairly faithfully, and the item selection mechanic is interesting. It's not that pretty, but I think it stands on its own.
 

famicommander

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Dragon's Lair on NES isn't a port at all, it's an entirely different game based on certain aspects of the arcade version.

Don't get me wrong, it's still horrible. But it doesn't really fit with the spirit of this thread since they weren't trying to translate the arcade experience to the home console in the first place.
 

aoiddr

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I recall not being too fond of the DOS port of The Simpsons Arcade game when I was a kid...mostly due to there not being a way to remap the keyboard controls to a joystick at the time.
 

Dr Shroom

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Oh and it's played with 1 or 2 buttons too.



 
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Kid Panda

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Have you played the X68K version? There's no excuse for how bad it is.

And SMS Daimakaimura is pretty good, actually. It plays fairly faithfully, and the item selection mechanic is interesting. It's not that pretty, but I think it stands on its own.



Turf has told me the only positive is the box art. That's sad.
 

gusmoney

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Re: Pit Fighter

That was shit to begin with.

Yeah, but it was our shit.

An evolutionary stage --that if you are of a certain arcade-going age, you watched it happen in real time-- in fighters that begat Mortal Kombat.
 

FilthyRear

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ST on the SNES could have been great.

I don't think they could have put ST on a cart. Even on the SNES the everything sounded super compressed and tinny. I think if they added the supers and all the new animations it wouldnt have worked.

I'm speculating, obviously - I don't really know shit about the hardware.
 

Atro

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I fail to see how Amigas and ST's are consoles but oh well...

Those ports shouldn't even count as ports but as "officialy licensed homebrews". They all seemed to be done by the neighbor next door on a sunday hangover recovery...

It's funny because I was looking at some port comparisons today of Chiki Chiki boys and then I see this thread!
The Amiga ports suffer badly also due to the choppy ST. Programmers did the job to be +- equal on both machines. Everybody knows how limited the ST was. So the Amiga's got always the bad part of it. Out Run is a clear example of that.

In the other hand, Toki and Saint Dragon were fantastic arcade ports for a single disk.

I might also add that some early Mega Drive and Snes ports could have been near arcade perfect if they didn't cut on the rom size budget. Chiki Chiki Boys is one of them.
 

Mr Bakaboy

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Dragon's Lair on NES isn't a port at all, it's an entirely different game based on certain aspects of the arcade version.

Don't get me wrong, it's still horrible. But it doesn't really fit with the spirit of this thread since they weren't trying to translate the arcade experience to the home console in the first place.

That's the problem. It's not like we as kids had a way of finding out back in the NES days that they weren't making a arcade port. It said Dragon's Lair and looked like Dragon's Lair on the box, but was far from it. Just looking at the back of the box doesn't tell you shit either because we knew the game won't look exactly like the arcade.

Space Ace SNES they actually tried to replicate the arcade experience just with SNES graphics. We expected something closer to that.
 

100proof

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Speaking of PS1 Capcom fighters, there's always Xmen vs Street Fighter and Marvel vs Capcom. There's no character tagging in the PS1 version which kind of defeats the purpose of the game.

But my vote has to go to SNES Captain America and the Avengers. I still remember getting the SNES version and how excited I was, as the local arcade had this game and I played it quite a bit. I played it for under a minute and instantly hated it. Something got messed up with how enemies take hits. Instead of comboing enemies cleanly like the arcade version, every enemy just walks though your punches and ignores your hits. So you have to play the entire game using Konami boss fight "hit once then run away" tactics, or only use ranged attacks while jumping around to avoid them. Fuuuuuuck this game.

Second all of this. CA+A was butt on SNES and the Vs. games should NEVER have been released on PS1.
 

Azathoth

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World Heroes is definitely the worst arcade port on the Gen/MD and possibly the worst Neo port to any system. It's an absolute travesty compared to the excellent SNES port released way over a year before it. Looks good in still shots but every single other aspect of it is atrocious. Zero redeeming value to this one-man programmed abortion and that's coming from a guy that loves WH.

Anyone complaining about butchered Capcom PSX ports or the SNES SFA2 port should sit down and devote some time to WH on the MD.
 
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