bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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Yeah it's the same thing. It makes an enormous difference in two player games.
The struggle to not cash in on Neo Geo AES consoles and games..
- Thread starter MetalSlugVet
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Yeah it's the same thing. It makes an enormous difference in two player games.
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Yeah, sorry. I don't read that as evidence that it was intentional.
bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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Because it wasn't. It was simply poorly written code and only psycho fanboys are going to make arguments that it was some brilliant decision on the part of the developers.
The fact that Metal Slug X was released so quickly after it and changed this behavior says it all. It was a fuckup. Metal Slug X is basically a glorified patch for Metal Slug 2.
bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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Well, Street Fighter 1 played like shit, and the same guy directed FF1, so I just assumed that's why it played like shit.
I've never been an apologist for early Neo Geo fighters. There was never any excuse for them being worse than SF2. Can't stand any of those shitty World Heroes games either. Samurai Shodown 2 was much the first one they got right, and that was a whopping 3 years after SF2. There was no excuse for the Metal Slug games running at 30hz internally, either. Pretty embarrassing really.
(Gunstar Heroes remains the best Contra style game ever made)
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donluca
Ninja Combat Warrior
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No problem, you gotta have some basic understanding of programming (or, in that case, C language) to understand what was going on there and what the patch did, but all it did, really, was to remove the check if the vblank call was an even number and, in that case, ignore it.
Code:
if(vblank_counter != 2)
return;Besides, remember that Metal Slug X used a whole new engine (not a patched MS2 one), which was used as a kind of test bench for Metal Slug 3. They were probably testing out the limits of the new engine to see how hard they could push it for their next major game.
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I know. I understand.
I just think it's so intolerably bad that there's no way it was intentional. Especially in an arcade setting where there is little incentive for the gameplay to take longer. I think it's more likely a mistake. Perhaps something that was changed and overlooked last minute.
I admit, it's strange that they didn't find it and correct it in later releases, but plenty of games never received revised code after initial release, so who knows. I suppose the speed was just more acceptable in those days. I remember hearing about the issue far less often back when MS2 was released.
I just think it's so intolerably bad that there's no way it was intentional. Especially in an arcade setting where there is little incentive for the gameplay to take longer. I think it's more likely a mistake. Perhaps something that was changed and overlooked last minute.
I admit, it's strange that they didn't find it and correct it in later releases, but plenty of games never received revised code after initial release, so who knows. I suppose the speed was just more acceptable in those days. I remember hearing about the issue far less often back when MS2 was released.
donluca
Ninja Combat Warrior
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I don't know man, I used to play MS2 at the arcades like everyday and the slowdown didn't bother me in any way. But I have to admit that when I got back to it when MAME became more mainstream I immediately thought "wow, was it like this back in the arcade?". Exact same reaction from several friends: no one remembered being it this slow.
And still, we played the hell out of it and, after getting used to it (single player) I find it perfectly acceptable. Two players though... that's really a mess.
Also, the way they coded it make it apparent that this was a deliberate decision: they wanted it to run like that. It wasn't a mistake or bad coding, because that took two distinct variables to handle this additional slowdown which meant they purposely programmed it to behave like that, it would have been a hell lot easier for the programmers to just let it roll.
And still, we played the hell out of it and, after getting used to it (single player) I find it perfectly acceptable. Two players though... that's really a mess.
Also, the way they coded it make it apparent that this was a deliberate decision: they wanted it to run like that. It wasn't a mistake or bad coding, because that took two distinct variables to handle this additional slowdown which meant they purposely programmed it to behave like that, it would have been a hell lot easier for the programmers to just let it roll.
oliverclaude
General Morden's Aide
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This is an extremely cool (even if bold) assumption, donluca. Thank you for elaborating on it! I myself also lean towards your opinion, that it could be intentional and that the game works nicely with this, sort of, Woo'esque slow motion in 1-player mode.
I see the same in Pulstar, where the slow down is used as a slow motion effect, too, in order to raise the tension − and it works, especially in the last stage. Here, the programmers didn't make the mistake to allow a simultaneous two player game, so it never crosses the line like MS2 in its 2-player mode.
But, even if it wasn't intentional, I think both teams still knew what the outcome would look like and what was technically possible at that time, so they decided to make a virtue out of necessity and indeed, you can interpret the slow down in both games as an authentic part of the game design and not an unintentional mistake or a lack of diligence.
geise
Mickey's Coach
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There's a big god damn difference from creating a game for certain hardware from the ground up and adding to already programmed in emulation. Any dev would know this. What were your claim to MAMEDev fame again?
Edit. I thought I remember reading your name before. Now I remember from years ago. https://www.reddit.com/r/cade/comments/46ii20/arcadevga_is_now_completely_useless/
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bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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It's hilarious how naive some of you are. Games have been FULL of simple and stupid errors for decades.
The SNES Super Mario Brothers All Stars has a simple error in the code that fucks up in the physics in SMB1. It was just a lazy oversight. This kind of crap happens all the time even now. Can't believe anyone actually thinks that Metal Slug 2 catastrophe was intentional.
The SNES Super Mario Brothers All Stars has a simple error in the code that fucks up in the physics in SMB1. It was just a lazy oversight. This kind of crap happens all the time even now. Can't believe anyone actually thinks that Metal Slug 2 catastrophe was intentional.
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What a weirdo.
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This is why I never liked SMB All Stars. It feels wrong.
bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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As with most games, it's better emulated than on real hardware.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/167/
Although to be fair you could patch the ROM and play that on real hardware, too.
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I guess if the slowdown was intentional, it could've been a lazy last minute attempt at balancing the difficulty. They should've had a better way though. And increasing the difficulty level in the game options should disable the slowdown then, but it doesn't.
Also, if it was intentional, then it should disable in 2-player mode.
Also, if it was intentional, then it should disable in 2-player mode.
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bulbousbeard
Iconic Romhacker Analinguist
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Dude, please stop...
The more you post, the deeper the hole gets.
Whatever, psycho! It's true.
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But no one cares.... except you and donluca.
donluca
Ninja Combat Warrior
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Cares about what?
I'm not sure if people are thinking I'm doing some crazy wizardry coding shit, debunking myths or anything, but I'm not.
I'm just looking at another guy's work and explaining in a more down-to-earth what the code does and why.
Since I don't own a crystal ball and wasn't there reading the minds of the programmers when they wrote that code, I've just added my 2 cents on why they probably coded the slowdown that way.
That's pretty much it.
The beard guy is just going on in his personal crusade for god-only-knows-why reason against Nazca programmers, I don't really care about that, he's free to do all his ramblings and make a fool of himself for all that I care.
I'm not sure if people are thinking I'm doing some crazy wizardry coding shit, debunking myths or anything, but I'm not.
I'm just looking at another guy's work and explaining in a more down-to-earth what the code does and why.
Since I don't own a crystal ball and wasn't there reading the minds of the programmers when they wrote that code, I've just added my 2 cents on why they probably coded the slowdown that way.
That's pretty much it.
The beard guy is just going on in his personal crusade for god-only-knows-why reason against Nazca programmers, I don't really care about that, he's free to do all his ramblings and make a fool of himself for all that I care.
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toilet paper?
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Sup wyo! Normally I’d be inclined to agree, since a glaring issue would have been noted in the location test phase...but the release of Metal Slug X seems to indicate that even if there was the possibility that it was an intentional implementation of code, the end result was likely not the intended player experience.
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Dude, please stop...
The more you post, the deeper the hole gets.
To be fair, that physics fix for Super Mario All-Stars is awesome, I have it and the classic graphics hack applied to a ROM on my SNES flash cart.
https://www.romhacking.net/hacks/604/