Supergrafx - is it worth it?

[vestcoat]

so...anyone know if jap power supplies work here in the US?

[rolins]

so...anyone know if jap power supplies work here in the US?

There is no problem as long as your electrical outlets run at 110v. I live in a old apartment and none my electrical outlets will go no lower than 120v. I plugged my Duo-R in 120v outlet and weird things started to happen. Mainly redbook audio stops and I can hear some kind of grinding noise from the cd player. I bought a step down transformer 120v -> 100v and I never had anymore problems.

http://www.voltageconverters.com/go.asp?ic=VC100J

This is the step down transformer that I bought and it's inexpensive


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[Keranu]

Nice post, Steve. Oh and +10 points for using 0 as your first number .

[Black Tiger]

OK, this thread inspired me to post a few thoughts on the use of "arcade perfect" terminology and why it is a relative term:

0) Back in the day, many ports seemed to *really capture* the arcade experience, in terms of gameplay, graphics and sound. Today, we look back and realize that the consoles of yesterday didn't have many (if any) arcade perfect ports. Even simpler arcade games like Galaga were lacking / different in significant ways.

1) We still don't have truly "arcade perfect" ports on today's high-end hardware / consoles. Do many of these ports *seem* nearly perfect? Of course. Well, at least in 2005 we think so...

2) A few years from now, though, people will laugh at our current emulation of arcade hardware, because significant improvements will be made in all areas. Perhaps only the purists will appreciate this, because most folks are happy with the current level of emulation of older arcade games, but improvements will be made.

So,

A) "Arcade perfect", depending on how strict your standards are, is a term that shouldn't be thrown around carelessly with ports. EVEN TODAY.

But,

B) If we judge a port in context to the available hardware at the time, we can better appreciate the ports of yesteryear. In the realm of computers X68000 had a wicked port of G n G. But we should distinguish between platforms and not simply lump X68000 (or AMIGA, for that matter) in with relatively cheap consoles when we make comparisons.

We should also be a little forgiving when folks (back in the day) extolled a game as "nearly arcade perfect" because, at the time, these ports were as close as any console had gotten to recreating more sophisticated arcade games. We're talking late 80's and early 90's.

Sure, there were great ports of simpler, earlier arcade games (i.e. Joust, Galaga) during 8-bit and prior console eras, but it was amazing to see STRIDER on the Genesis at the same time it was in the arcades. Yeah, I know that Strider on Genesis wasn't arcade perfect -- far from it. I also know that folks have argued that the Genny port is showing its age and had some flaws. I don't disagree. But I still enjoy the game -- and it is NOT about nostalgia.

I seek and enjoy most versions of a kool game. So...

C) I never understand folks who say, "Well, now that the we have the perfect Saturn / DC / PSX / GBA / PS2 port of ____________ , you shouldn't waste your time with the earlier, lesser ports." In all fairness, some of the folks who say this aren't interested in retrogaming on consoles as much as they are interested in the orginal arcade games.

Sorry for rambling !!!

The NES version is still my favorite Strider.

Also, I beleive that whether or not any work was ever done on the Supergrafx version of Strider, the Arcade Card version is pretty much what we could've expected visually if they did a similar job compared to GnG/Daimakaimura.

The main difference probably would've been a layer of scrolling background, less detail in the bg's and no bonus level(the CD specific features are a given).

The plain old PC Engine could've pumped out a much better, near-arcade perfect port of GnG on HuCard or CD if it was given the effort that Side Arms and Forgotten Worlds received.

[handygrafx]

a few articles from EGM
showing how much they hyped SuperGrafx Ghouls 'n Ghosts:

EGM #10 - May, 1990


EGM #11 - June 1990

(note that 'The Mountain King' is Granzort)

EGM #13 - August 1990


EGM #14 - September 1990


EGM #15 - October 1990


okay, so some of the excitement was in order, afterall, the SG graphics in GnG DID blow the Genesis away in many areas. but I think these articles contributed to everyone's delusion in later years that SG was as good as the arcade.

[FM-77]

It is always funny to read old gaming magazines. The fanboyism was ridiculous back then! "They blow the Genesis away!", "which DESTROYS the Genesis 16-bit version", etc etc.  

[Black Tiger]

It is always funny to read old gaming magazines. The fanboyism was ridiculous back then! "They blow the Genesis away!", "which DESTROYS the Genesis 16-bit version", etc etc.  

In cases like that though, it wasn't fanboyism(I don't think anyone at EGM ever touched a SGX), it was the whole idea that anything next gen, by default, will always be better.

And since the Supergrafx had a pallete of thousands of colors and hardware scaling & rotation and a faster cpu, then all of its games of course would have to better.

Especially when it says on paper that the Supergrafx version has a higher Meg size. And as anyone who read the mags at the time knows, the more megs, the more processing power.

And I think that fanboyism was relatively low-key back then compared to how fanboyism todays totally destroys it.

Especially with self-titled "gamers"(now its cool for me to play video games just like its cool to obsess over Star Trek as long as you refer to yourself as a "Treker") online.

[FM-77]

Oh, I see. I thought it was a NEC magazine.  

I remember reading Nintendo magazines back in the day. Once when they reviewed Adventure Island 2 for NES, they said:

"Adventure Island 2 is actually a rip-off of Sega's Wonder Boy. But Wonder Boy, on the other hand -- is a total rip-off of Nintendo's own Super Mario!"

Ridiculous!!  

Got more examples, but not now.  

[sunteam_paul]

While we're on the subject of Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, take a look what dear old Computer & Video Games had to say about the Megadrive verison.



Yeah, right. Great game as it was, there are a hell of a lot of differences.

[supergrafxpcengine2]

While we're on the subject of Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, take a look what dear old Computer & Video Games had to say about the Megadrive verison.



Yeah, right. Great game as it was, there are a hell of a lot of differences.

wow, nice find paul. I've never seen that quote before, since I never read C&VG magazine.  this is typical though, of the nonsense that was said back in 1989.

[FM-77]

While we're on the subject of Ghouls 'n' Ghosts, take a look what dear old Computer & Video Games had to say about the Megadrive verison.



Yeah, right. Great game as it was, there are a hell of a lot of differences.

wow, nice find paul. I've never seen that quote before, since I never read C&VG magazine.  this is typical though, of the nonsense that was said back in 1989.

They even said "Megadrive."  

(Goes off to play his Mega Drive.)

[handygrafx]

EGM praised Genesis Ghouls 'n Ghosts very highly, telling us it was a 'virtual carbon-copy'  of the coin-op:

EGM #3, Aug-Sept 1989, the hilarious Ironsword - Fabio issue:

page 66:


EGM stretched the truth quite a bit here, although they did not give us an absolute falsehood, a total baldfaced lie, as Computer & Video Games obviously did, because EGM said 'virtual' before 'carbon-copy', and
EGM later acknowledged the fact that lots of graphics had been cut from the Genesis version, and that even the SuperGrafx version was 'closer' to the coin-op and never said there were no differences.

heh, when I read that EGM mag, that was the first I had EVER heard of Ghouls 'n Ghosts, and at the time I did not even know about the previous game, Ghosts 'n Goblins.

with that said, I actually approve of the term 'carbon-copy',  that is, if it can be used in a truthful way-- obviously not in the Genesis GnG example, but that term is a much, much better description than the horribly over-used phrase 'arcade perfect' which means absolutely nothing and is completely worthless, IMO.

[akamichi]

I remember reading those EGMs back in the day.  They did go overboard with the "arcade perfect" ratings a number of times.

I'd like to say that the PCE mags of that time didn't do the same thing.  At least they compared the arcade, MD, and SGX versions w/pix on the same page rather than just saying "perfect" or "kills the MD ver".  Not to say that they weren't biased, but at least they compared a few shots and explained the differences in terms of the console's capabilities.  I'll have to look for that article and post it.

[handygrafx]

I remember reading those EGMs back in the day.  They did go overboard with the "arcade perfect" ratings a number of times.

but thankfully, the old skool EGM of 1989-1994 did not use the phrase 'arcade perfect'.  that awful term came into being around the mid 1990s, and I think it started more with GameFan.... then everyone was using it during the Saturn-Playstation-Nintendo64 era, and it still has not gone away *shudder*

but yeah, the good old EGM, the 'real' EGM, by Sendai Publications,  did over-rate the arcade translations of many games, including Genesis Super Monaco GP (it got two 10s) and AfterBurner II, among others.

I'd like to say that the PCE mags of that time didn't do the same thing.  At least they compared the arcade, MD, and SGX versions w/pix on the same page rather than just saying "perfect" or "kills the MD ver".  Not to say that they weren't biased, but at least they compared a few shots and explained the differences in terms of the console's capabilities.  I'll have to look for that article and post it.

wow that's refreshing!  I would dearly love to see some scans from these PCE magazines, along with even a rough translation to English, like the translated SGX Strider articles.

[Keranu]

Haha, that GnG scan was hilarious, Paul.