strat wrote:Voor wrote:Arcade games being “superior” to their console counterparts is a cool element to video game history. Remember the fun of seeing how “close” a console game came to the real/arcade version? If they had perfected it right out of the gate, all that fun would have been lost.
Video games were slightly more interesting when ports had to be different from the source material. Now practically every multiplatform release is identical (exclusive content and performance issues notwithstanding).
Back in ye olden days, when porting you tried to support the programming style that got you as many releases on as many selling platforms as possible. For instance, one of the more common British Micros, the ZX Spectrum, used a Z80 CPU. You would try to program on this and the Amstrad CPC (which used largely the same core), and usually hired out the development of other paltforms (such as the Atari and C64) to other houses that specialized in porting from one design to another. Sometimes extra levels or extras would be added, sometimes the efforts would be disastrous.
Nowadays, the platforms have largely the same programming designs and abilities (look at how similar the XBONE and PS4 are), and aside from contractual obligations, why bother putting in extra time to one or the other?
Also, back in ye olden days, the development teams were smaller and were able to cram in extras and go the extra mile than nowadays. 32X Virtua Fighter had many extra options the original Arcade and Saturn versions lacked, and then there's Mortal Kombat II on the Genesis with the extra -ality hidden...