I see alot on here with folks trying to declare the turbo as having more impressive graphics than the genesis. I've always been a fan of turbografx but pretty much knew the graphics were not up to snuff (even though I would still argue the point back in the day). The additional background layer on the genesis did wonders, and it seemed like the turbo games spent alot of power and sprites trying to emulate this effect. Also the resolution always appeared higher on the Genesis games, with smoother edges and more detailed sprites.
I would give the turbo an edge in color, but thats about it. I would say that it was always interesting to see how the programmers could overcome the single background limitation on the the turbo. LOT is especially impressive in this department. The limitations of the turbo are especially apparent in ports like altered beast and strider, where the turbo just can't match the depth of the parallax layers.
Any comparisons that could blow me out of the water and prove me wrong? I'd love to see. Plus where, if it all, does the turbo beat out the Genesis in any tech stat categories? I'm talking strictly graphics not sound
Genesis games appeared to have smoother edges and shading that wasn't really there because of how blurry the RF and composite image quality was. Turbo 'graphics' appeared extra pixelly because of how clear the image was. During the heyday of the 16-bit console wars, some of my friends argued the same thing.
It sounds like you aren't overly familiar with the PC Engine library, but maybe you are and just missed some of the better examples of the kinda graphics that impress you.
An unimpressive game on any platform is the fault of the developer, not the hardware. Altered Beast wasn't the greatest port even on Genesis. The parallax used in the Genesis version is a poor example by Genesis standards and can easily be replicated on the PC Engine, SMS or NES.
If you're judging the mediocre Altered Beast PCE port as being poor mainly because of the missing layers, you must also not be very impressed by the weak arcade hardware whose version of Altered Beast's flat backgrounds the PCE port emulates just fine.
Strider is widely regarded as one of the worst arcade to PCE ports and the Genesis version one of its best. At least criticize the PCE version of Forgotten Worlds for having nearly arcade perfect graphics and flat bgs as looking uglier than the Genesis port's crude in comparison graphics complimented by layered bgs.
But regardless, I don't understand how you can point out how impressive Lords of Thunder is for layered graphics in one sentence and in the next sentence say that Altered Beast and Strider
prove that the PC Engine can't do them.
I don't know if any examples
could blow you out of the water, since your appreciation of graphics is based on how closely they emulate the Genesis. Any good examples of layered bgs in PCE games could still be done on Genesis if you discount the actual
graphics.
Aside from all the Turbo/PCE games that have nice layered graphics, there are still a bunch of flat bg games that look nicer than their Genesis counterparts. But its still not simply always a reflection of a weakness in the Genesis and usually has more to do with the developer(
like when all the graphics are redrawn). But when the Turbo's strength in color is used effectively, it does look very nice compared to a well done Genesis port. Like say SFIICE and the arcade card Neo Geo ports.
