PC Engine Arcade card vs Neo Geo games - video comparisons online?

[c0ldb33r]

Hi all, I've searched quite a bit and can't find anything.

I'd like to see some comparison videos or reviews which compare tg16 arcade card games to other consoles. In particular, I'd like to see a review/comparison of the tg16 SNK games to their neogeo originals.

Has anyone run into these in their travels?

[tomaitheous]

Comparison pics/videos only show what's on the surface. You'd have to play both games to get to the more important aspects about the game (play control and responsive mechanics), I would imagine. But that point aside, I've seen a little over at PCFX forums. Though, IIRC, it was mostly for the SNES/Genesis ports comparison to the PCE's ACD ports. Not necessarily the Neo Geo ports, to those or specifically to the PCE's.

[Graham Mitchell]

I own the arcade card version of Fatal Fury 2. The gameplay is perfectly adequate, and quite fun. I'm sure you won't be shocked to learn, however, that aesthetically it can't hold a candle to the Neo Geo version. No parallax floors, no scaling effects when "changing lanes",and small sprites limit the experience. Also, one thing about the Neo Geo in general is that the sound chip in that machine is really impressive. You just never appreciate it because youre playing it in a noisey arcade. As such, even with the cd soundtrack, the Neo version is king. Get the pce version if youre a rabid fan, or youre just interested in seeing how it turned out. But in general, with Neo Geo ports, the best experience is almost always with the source material.

[duo_r]

I have all the Neo ports for TG....they are fun but don't really compare. I don't understand why Samurai Showdown wasn't ported for PCE. The sega CD version was pretty decent.

[tomaitheous]

I own the arcade card version of Fatal Fury 2. The gameplay is perfectly adequate, and quite fun. I'm sure you won't be shocked to learn, however, that aesthetically it can't hold a candle to the Neo Geo version. No parallax floors, no scaling effects when "changing lanes",and small sprites limit the experience.

Small sprites??? You sure you own the PCE ACD game? I own both FF2 and FF Special. The sprites are fairly large (larger than the Genesis and SNES ports). They also scale when jumping back and forth between the back layer and the front layer.


As such, even with the cd soundtrack, the Neo version is king.

Most later NeoGeo games are just mostly ADPCM streaming stuff. CDDA is uncompressed and better sample output rate.

[kedawa]

I don't know about the PCE games, but Sega CD versions of FFS an Samurai Shodown don't improve over the NeoGeo soundtracks at all. It sounds like they just recorded the soundtest from the original.

[Graham Mitchell]

Small sprites??? You sure you own the PCE ACD game? I own both FF2 and FF Special. The sprites are fairly large (larger than the Genesis and SNES ports). They also scale when jumping back and forth between the back layer and the front layer.

It's been awhile since I played it, but iirc, the sprites animate to a smaller size when jumping to the back lane, but do not utilize a smooth, hardware-enabled scaling effect like the Neo version. But like I said, it's been awhile since I played it, and I was comparing it to the arcade version, not other ports.

In any case, the general consensus here seems to be that the Neo versions simply are the best. It makes sense. Cd audio or not, the NG was just a more powerful machine.

[duo_r]

The Sega CD version doesn't zoom.

[tomaitheous]

It's been awhile since I played it, but iirc, the sprites animate to a smaller size when jumping to the back lane, but do not utilize a smooth, hardware-enabled scaling effect like the Neo version. But like I said, it's been awhile since I played it, and I was comparing it to the arcade version, not other ports.

I just compared Terry from the ACD and from the NeoGeo shots. Adjust for pixel aspect ratio, they're the same size. Unless you mean something else by "small sprites limit the experience"? Objects in a stage? The scaling of the character sprites between lanes is a little less on the PCE ACD port, but it's not much on the NeoGeo port to begin width.

[Az]

Art of Fighting is a masterpiece. The scaling isn't super smooth or impressive, but it retains the facial damage to the characters and has a spectacular AST not found on any other version. I don't even own the original hardware and only play it on PCE emulators and I'm completely satisfied.

I own both FF2 and FFS, along with World Heroes 2. I haven't done an intensive side by side comparison since I'm forced to use my PC to emulate the PCE setup, but from the limited amount of time spent with them I can say they seem to be the definitive versions. The only thing I don't like about World Heroes 2 is that Sunsoft included in an option in the SNES verison to use the original match mode lifebars in the Deathmatch mode, which really improved it to me since I hated the see-saw lifebar of the original arcade.

I also know the SNES verison of WH2 allows both boss characters to be played in 1p story mode via code, unsure of this on the PCE verison.

Sega CD ports of FFS and SS are really crappy, especially compared to the PCE version. The soundtrack is the original OST, the amount of frame cuts and BG animation loss is almost pathetic. Calling it a stripped down port would be giving it a compliment. It's better than nothing, but not by much.

[Graham Mitchell]

I just compared Terry from the ACD and from the NeoGeo shots. Adjust for pixel aspect ratio, they're the same size. Unless you mean something else by "small sprites limit the experience"? Objects in a stage? The scaling of the character sprites between lanes is a little less on the PCE ACD port, but it's not much on the NeoGeo port to begin width.

Edit: That was not very nice.

I'm sorry to have irritated you by saying that. You're right. Victory for you. Can we stop picking at me now? I made that post yesterday. Thank you.

[kedawa]

Sega CD ports of FFS and SS are really crappy, especially compared to the PCE version. The soundtrack is the original OST, the amount of frame cuts and BG animation loss is almost pathetic. Calling it a stripped down port would be giving it a compliment. It's better than nothing, but not by much.
Ain't that the truth. While I owned and enjoyed both games, they really did feel like unfinished games. SS only has the full neutral animation on the character select screen. Once you start the match, it's cut down to 2 or 3 frames. Both games have so much missing from the backgrounds too. Worst of all, no Earthquake in SS. Still the gameplay was intact and they felt like the NeoGeo versions, more or less. Much better than the SNES ports, pretty as they are.

[tomaitheous]

Edit: That was not very nice.

I'm sorry to have irritated you by saying that. You're right. Victory for you. Can we stop picking at me now? I made that post yesterday. Thank you.

Picking at you??? I think you got the wrong impression. I wasn't intentionally being mean or a jerk to you. Just confused by some of your statements. I originally had thought maybe you had confused the SNES or Genesis port with the PCE port (those ports have smaller sprites, IIRC). The PCE port isn't a perfect reproduction, but it's known for its sprites (size and frames of animation). The BGs conversion to the PCE ACD port is pretty good too (for the PCE itself, and compared to the other ports as well).

[Az]

Ain't that the truth. While I owned and enjoyed both games, they really did feel like unfinished games. SS only has the full neutral animation on the character select screen. Once you start the match, it's cut down to 2 or 3 frames. Both games have so much missing from the backgrounds too. Worst of all, no Earthquake in SS. Still the gameplay was intact and they felt like the NeoGeo versions, more or less. Much better than the SNES ports, pretty as they are.

Sad part about FFS does the same thing, every fucking character on the select screen has the full standing animation, but in game some standing animations are reduced to 2 frames.

The only thing I like about it versus the MD port is it's fullscreen, rather than having a large black status bar taking up a quarter or less of the screen.

I like how SS has the cinemas not found in the cart version, it is one of the few CD ports of the time that justified owning both the CD and cart to compare and contrast the differences between the two. FFS was just lame, and being the bosses were playable in the cart version along with the weird dipswitch mode, the cart version really wins hands down.

[Graham Mitchell]

Picking at you??? I think you got the wrong impression. I wasn't intentionally being mean or a jerk to you. Just confused by some of your statements. I originally had thought maybe you had confused the SNES or Genesis port with the PCE port (those ports have smaller sprites, IIRC). The PCE port isn't a perfect reproduction, but it's known for its sprites (size and frames of animation). The BGs conversion to the PCE ACD port is pretty good too (for the PCE itself, and compared to the other ports as well).

Okay, well, here's where my opinion comes from. I don't have a Neo Geo, and I don't have access to the NG version of FF2. But, after playing the ACD FF2, I popped in FF1 on my PS2 SNK Arcade Hits disk and to me, the sprites looked way bigger, the sound was bolder...the whole experience was just so aesthetically better on all levels (even though FF1 is a simpler game. And I'm running my PCE through a video upscaler to 1080p, so it's a pretty sharp image for those ACD games.)

And I'm sorry, I interpreted the multiple exclamation points/question marks as yelling. And the fact that you brought this up twice, and attempted to bring up evidence that I was "wrong", made me feel...attacked.

But in the long run, I agree with you that the ACD port is pretty damn good. It's pretty amazing what they were able to with what is essentially an 8-bit machine.