Sunset Riders for NES??? (Again)

[ColecoFan1981]

Does anyone know whether or not an NES release of Sunset Riders was ever planned? I do understand it would be heavily watered down to fit that system's 8-bit architecture, along with Nintendo of America's policy of censoring including removing most Native American references and dressing all the girls in moderate fashions, but I'd like to know whether or not the 4-player co-op missing from the Sega Genesis and Super NES versions, as well as choosing from all four players in the arcade and SNES versions, could be retained there?

I'm also wondering whether the absence of 4-player co-op from the Genesis and SNES versions was due to the memory sizes of the ROMs.

~Ben

[Satoshi_Matrix]

No. I highly doubt that a Famicom/NES version of Sunset Riders was an idea that ever went beyond a single proposal board meeting. Although Sunset Riders came out in arcades in 90, 91, the console ports were developed until 93.

By then, Konami had moved on from the Famicom to instead produce games for the MegaDrive and Super Famicom. The only really notable active third party on the Famiocm at that point was Taito.

[Sysop]

I just can't see how they would have even considered this, especially as at the time this hypothetical port could have been created, it would not have been profitable enough for Konami to make an NES version. That, and I don't believe it was a big enough name for them to bother in contrast to something like Mega Man.

[Ozzy_98]

I'm also wondering whether the absence of 4-player co-op from the Genesis and SNES versions was due to the memory sizes of the ROMs.
~Ben

There wasn't a multitap out when they were developing the game. The multitap looks to have been announced 6 days before the release of the port. Also, ROM would be a tiny part of this, since it just holds animations of the plays. Ram and limitations of sprites per scanline are more important factors, plus CPU speed.

[SparTonberry]

Sprite limit is probably a big reason, and whether they felt the port would be popular enough to warrant such a feature.
Though Super Bomberman (the first game to support a multitap) was released in Japan in April 1993 and reviewed in the June issue of Nintendo Power.
Sunset Riders wasn't released until the latter part of 1993, so there could have been time to program support if they wanted. Secret of Mana was released about the same time as Sunset Riders and that had multitap support (... despite Lord of the Rings' claim it was the first multiplayer action-RPG when it was released almost a year later :P ).

[ColecoFan1981]

There wasn't a multitap out when they were developing the game. The multitap looks to have been announced 6 days before the release of the port. Also, ROM would be a tiny part of this, since it just holds animations of the plays. Ram and limitations of sprites per scanline are more important factors, plus CPU speed.
Nintendo did have the Four Score 4-player module for the NES...

~Ben

[Doonzmore]

No. I highly doubt that a Famicom/NES version of Sunset Riders was an idea that ever went beyond a single proposal board meeting. Although Sunset Riders came out in arcades in 90, 91, the console ports were developed until 93.

By then, Konami had moved on from the Famicom to instead produce games for the MegaDrive and Super Famicom. The only really notable active third party on the Famiocm at that point was Taito.

Konami released Batman Returns and Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland in 1993. They also released TMNT: Tournament Fighters in 94.

[SparTonberry]

Why didn't Konami port their top-down hack-and-slash beat-em-up Gaiapolis to the NES, even though Sachen made a bootleg port of the game?
Probably because Konami didn't think it was worth their effort to port it. :P

[Satoshi_Matrix]

Konami released Batman Returns and Tiny Toon Adventures 2: Trouble in Wackyland in 1993. They also released TMNT: Tournament Fighters in 94.

Yes, but those are pretty simplistic stregithforward games. What do you get from Tiny Toons 2? More of Tiny Toons 1. What is Batman Returns? A simplistic beat 'em up just like Mighty Final Fight and other NES brawlers. Tournament Fighters was rather surprising to see though, as the NES had no history of fighting games with very few exceptions like Joy Mech Fight.

[Sysop]

Yes, but those are pretty simplistic stregithforward games. What do you get from Tiny Toons 2? More of Tiny Toons 1. What is Batman Returns? A simplistic beat 'em up just like Mighty Final Fight and other NES brawlers. Tournament Fighters was rather surprising to see though, as the NES had no history of fighting games with very few exceptions like Joy Mech Fight.
Which made TMNT Tournament Fighters the perfect game engine for bootlegs of stuff like Mortal Kombat.

[A Black Falcon]

Yes, but those are pretty simplistic stregithforward games. What do you get from Tiny Toons 2? More of Tiny Toons 1.
No it's not! The first one is a platformer, but the second has several different game styles, including those topdown bumper cars levels, etc. It's not just more of the same. (This game was from late '92 in Japan, and early '93 in the US.)


What is Batman Returns? A simplistic beat 'em up just like Mighty Final Fight and other NES brawlers.
Sure, but it's interesting that Konami was still making NES beat 'em ups in early 1993. The other Konami games from early 1993 include F1 Sensation (JP only, average-looking racing game), Bio-Miracle Bokutte Upa (JP only, good platformer), and Zen: Intergalactic Ninja (part isometric platform-action, part platformer -- unique mix!).


Tournament Fighters was rather surprising to see though, as the NES had no history of fighting games with very few exceptions like Joy Mech Fight.
Yeah, this one definitely is interesting -- TMNT Tournament Fighters released in spring '94, a full year after Konami's previous NES game -- they released their last '93 titles in April, then nothing until Tournament Fighters the next spring. And it's somewhat unique for the platform too, of course; not too many traditional fighting games on the NES! But looking at those '93 games, I would say that Zen is also unique, and Bokutte Upa and Batman Returns are quality games for sure. Konami put effort in their NES games until the end. Well, mostly; Contra Force was another title from later in '92, along with Tiny Toon Adventures 2...

[Edmond Dantes]

Hey, does anyone know if Konami ever planned a port of Sunset Riders for the Atari VCS, Vectrex, or Commodore 64? I bet those would've totally been arcade-accurate and had four players and gotten everything across and everything ;)

[SparTonberry]

The other Konami games from early 1993 include F1 Sensation (JP only, average-looking racing game),
I think F1 Sensation was also released in Europe. I don't know if it's average, though Konami (Palcom, whatever) did also release Road Fighter in 1992 (they took a 1985 top-down driving game that was probably even then poorly aged and marginally updated the graphics and rereleased it).

[A Black Falcon]

I think F1 Sensation was also released in Europe. I don't know if it's average, though Konami (Palcom, whatever) did also release Road Fighter in 1992 (they took a 1985 top-down driving game that was probably even then poorly aged and marginally updated the graphics and rereleased it).
You're right, it does also have a European release. Somehow I missed that. But when you say it's not average, do you mean it's good, or bad? Looking at a video o the game it looks okay, at least. I haven't played it myself though, so maybe it's good. I just usually don't think of the NES as being a platform that's very good at behind-the-car racing games... of what I've played, I actually would rank it third that gen in those, behind both the SMS and 7800. The NES blows away the competition in platformers, but not so much behind-the-car racers...

Anyway though, Zen: Intergalactic Ninja is a decent to good game, with nice visuals too. It definitely shows that Konami cared about the NES to the end.