2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

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VideoGameCritic
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2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 22nd, 2018, 10:33 am

Here's a pair of brand new Turbografx-16 reviews you might like. Feedback welcome.

GameOfThrones
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby GameOfThrones » March 22nd, 2018, 12:46 pm

Both games were state of the art in the middle 90s. At that time there were a lot of machines with a lot of differences in the architecture. Now all the systems are pretty much the same.
There is a new compilation coming out for the Xbone and the ps4 of the Megadrive games (again) and space harrier will be on that one. Turrican has been lost to time. Originally a Commodore Amiga game before being released on the megadrive and it also had a conversion to be universal soldier as well.
Thanks for the reviews as it is good to see it made it to the turbo. A good game to be sure but it sounds like time has not been kind to these games.
Space Harrier was so good back in the day. IN the arcades you climbed into the machine and it rocked you from side to side. It had an incredible alien landscape. I think I had it on Spectrum. Truly an amazing game. Though your review shows that even amazing games age.

Sut
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby Sut » March 22nd, 2018, 4:54 pm

Hmm you state this is probably the fastest version of Space Harrier you’ve played but you’ve reviewed the 32x version which along with the Saturn actually really scales the sprites. In my opinion it’s a classic on those two systems but any systems before hand just couldn’t handle it properly.

Regarding Turrican it’s a stone cold classic on the ST and Amiga but it was designed for those systems in mind then ported to consoles much later. I enjoy but it definitely has the European game design issues ie very good graphics and sound but rock hard and often unfair difficulty and labyrinthine level design. My biggest bug bear with the game is you don’t get temporary invincibility once hit and you health can be drained really quickly.

Enjoyed the reviews but both games have much better versions on other systems.

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scotland
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby scotland » March 22nd, 2018, 6:20 pm

Its kinda neat to have Sega's Space Harrier on this system at all - and it probably plays better than the Master System version.

Since its also a 1989 game, it prompts me to wonder "What if this had been the pack-in title?". Of course, being a Sega game, that would not have made much sense.

I always enjoy the TG-16 reviews. Thanks for doing them.

ThePixelatedGenocide
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » March 22nd, 2018, 6:23 pm

This is just a really bad port of Turrican, by the same folks who brought it to the Genesis. Aside from not even trying to take advantage of the platform, they increased the difficulty in order to prevent kids from beating it during a rental.

But the problem is that it was already a rock hard game designed around exploration and traps, and a camera that partially hides the level ahead of you. Now it's mostly only fun for masochists and those who played the original to death.

There may be some overlap...

Anyone else curious about the series should either stick with the Amiga original, or check out the Mega Turrican (given a B by the critic)/Super Turrican series (not yet rated), all of which play a bit more arcade style, but with far more polish.

Also, it's ridiculous how little Sega cared about their super scaler ports around this time - no wonder why the Megadrive was greeted with a yawn in Japan. I'd give anything for someone to redo Space Harrier 2 on a larger cart, or with software sprite scaling...

djc
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby djc » March 23rd, 2018, 12:35 am

In my opinion, when comparing Sega arcade games that used the System16/32 engine on the Genesis and Turbo, the TG/PC-Engine versions are always better IMO. I think a lot of it is because the Turbo had significantly better graphic scaling support than the Genesis (better music also). It's really evident in games like Altered Beast (look at the end-stage boss encounters where the TG16 more closely resembles the arcade when the old man transitions into the boss).

Games like Outun, After Burner 2 (you *have* to try this one), Space Harrier, Shinobi, Altered Beast, and even Golden Axe just seem better on the Turbo/PC-Engine. It's a shame that most of them were not released in the US for obvious reasons.

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Stalvern
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby Stalvern » March 23rd, 2018, 12:31 pm

Sut wrote:Regarding Turrican it’s a stone cold classic on the ST and Amiga but it was designed for those systems in mind then ported to consoles much later.

It was designed for the C64; master C64 programmer Manfred Trenz designed and produced that original version completely by himself (apart from the music). Factor 5's Amiga port is excellent, though, and probably a better version of the game anyway. Same goes for the incredible Turrican II, which makes the original look downright underwhelming.

mbd36
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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby mbd36 » March 25th, 2018, 10:43 am

djc wrote:In my opinion, when comparing Sega arcade games that used the System16/32 engine on the Genesis and Turbo, the TG/PC-Engine versions are always better IMO. I think a lot of it is because the Turbo had significantly better graphic scaling support than the Genesis (better music also). It's really evident in games like Altered Beast (look at the end-stage boss encounters where the TG16 more closely resembles the arcade when the old man transitions into the boss).

Games like Outun, After Burner 2 (you *have* to try this one), Space Harrier, Shinobi, Altered Beast, and even Golden Axe just seem better on the Turbo/PC-Engine. It's a shame that most of them were not released in the US for obvious reasons.


The original arcade Shinobi was never released on the Genesis for comparison.

PC Engine Golden Axe looks like it only has the music and cut scenes going for it. The Genesis port is much better.

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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby mbd36 » March 25th, 2018, 12:29 pm

Both the Turbografx and Genesis use software scaling. Neither has support for hardware scaling of sprites.

Any smoother scaling in the TG16 ports is from better programming not better hardware support.

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Re: 2018/3/22: Turbografx-16: Space Harrier, Turrican

Postby VideoGameCritic » March 25th, 2018, 2:23 pm

Since the T16 version scales faster, it may help to hide any deficiencies in the scaling.


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