Battle of the Ports

Nintendo is notoriously tighter than a duck's behind when it comes to protecting its IP... Quite why is something I'll never be able to understand, especially when you look at what Sega has managed to achieve in recent years by opening up to fan input.

 

The wonders of international webhosting. Could they do that if you were based in North America?

 

Nope. I also wonder if with me being based in Japan effects my overseas exposure. I really should have way more than 20,000 subscribers by now.

Anyway, here's this week's battle of the Ports. P-47, Thunderstorm / The Freedom Fighter

 

A bit of an obscure one this week that surprisingly quite a few people asked for.

 

Way to dump on a childhood favourite (just kidding)... For better or worse, I grew up with the Amstrad version of MagMax and had no idea it was even an arcade port until years later. Upon finally getting to play the original in MAME, I first discovered the upper layer was meant to have a pseudo 3D effect, which it appears none of the home editions even tried to replicate (if only there had been a Mega Drive treatment similar to the expanded take on Slap Fight). Finally, I didn't know this was promoted as the first 16-bit aracde game. Thanks for another great trip down memory lane!

 

Who would have thought Puyo Puyo had so many ports! It's even on the N-Gauge.

 

I haven't been around much, but i've been enjoying all of your recent videos Yakumo.

Amazing work, as usual.

 

Thanks Johnny. When I started making Battle of the Ports I never thought I'd make it past 100 shows yet here I am just putting out show 215. Wow!

 

How many videos do you have left to do? 35?

 

Many thought I'd never cover it but here we are with Killer Instinct on this week's Battle Of The Ports.

 

This week on Battle of the Ports we take a look at the game which influenced the basis for modern fighting games.

 

Like so many of the other games you've covered that have sent me on the biggest nostalgic trips (including Slap Fight, Elevator Action and The Legend of Kage, to name just a few), I first played Yie Ar Kung-Fu on the Amstrad CPC 464, only learning years after that I'd already started developing a taste for arcade conversions that has grown with time. Rediscovering all these old classics in their original forms via MAME was a great experience, and I'll thank you again for this brilliant retrospective series. Now if only someone could explain why the sequel turned out to be such a disappointment...

 

The totally awesome Virtua Cop is featured on this weeks Battle of the Ports with 6 versions to show.

 

a suggestion, Pretty Solider Sailor Moon, Arcade - SNES - Mega Drive have a version

 

Virtua Cop on N-Gage? to be fair it didn't look that bad but I can't imagine aiming very well on the horrible N-Gage d-pad.

 

Thanks for another great episode, and I believe that's now the last of the so-called "Big Three" to receive the BOTP treatment! While you mentioned the regional title differences in the PS2 version, I'm surprised you didn't also comment on the PC edition of Virtua Cop being released in America under a different name... I never understood why this was necessary - is it a rights issue specific to the platform or something?

(As a side note, does anyone know if there's a fully working emulator for the Nokia N-Gage?)

 

Virtua Cop, awesome game and very good ports. Well, except for the LCD game... But again, Tiger Electronics bought any license they could.

Yie Air Kung Fu is a game that brings back memories of my older brother's MSX. Wondering if you are planning on doing a BOTP episode on Circus Charlie? That's another usually forgotten Konami game we enjoyed playing on it.

 

That you like Killer Instinct is kind of surprising. I've always liked it, even though I've never been very good at it. Funny story: I originally got a Genesis because I mistakenly thought Killer Instinct was on the Genesis (I was a kid). I loved the Genesis, so I kept it anyway. Later I got a Game Boy Pocket and the GB version of Killer Instinct, which also came with the "Killer Cuts" CD (I think). I still have the GB version. Personally, Killer Instinct Gold is my favorite home version of the series.

I'm curious; what do you think of other Rare games, like Donkey Kong Country, Conker's Bad Fur Day, GoldenEye, etc.? I've read a little about GoldenEye, and the developers said that the game was heavily inspired by Virtua Cop, and it was originally going to be an on-rails shooter before they changed it to an FPS. And the free aiming mode was supposed to be like a "Virtua Cop mode".

I used to have the Tiger handheld Virtua Cop game. I thought it was cool at the time. Now I have the Japanese Saturn version and the Japanese Virtua Gun. Interesting thing I discovered recently: they made a PC version of the Virtua Gun, which I think was Japan only.

 

Aren't they all different games? I don't think either the SFC or MD versions are based upon the Arcade game.

 

Ah yes, the PC version has a stupid name in the US that I can't remember at the moment.