Battle of the Ports - Space Harrier - Updated (スペースハリアー) Show  

Ah, thanks for the info. So good old UK BS game industry of the 80s was the reason for the crappy Elite version. Good thing he got to complete the game for the US release.

Yeah, usually that wouldn't happen, but Chris was given more time to polish it for the US release.

Well you SAY it wouldn't usually happen, but Butler experienced the exact same issue with "Commando", hence the flickery sprites. Elite had a habit of acquiring licenses late in the day, then rushing like crazy to make the Christmas release slot.

No, I meant usually programmers would NOT be given more time to polish something up!

Aaah...got you. Yep, that's certainly true!

There was something about the music running on the Atari synthesizer and I agree. It looked amazing.

the atari8bit port uses a LOT of extra memory, where all the sprite zoom frames are precompiled into code which blits them. it would be one of the the worst port if the original hw were used.

@@kangarht The Atari Space Harrier runs on a standard 64k Atari. A few floppy disks would be possible, and quite acceptable at the time for the outcome.

@neb6is it alternating the colours to blend them?

I know. Who would have thought I'd still be doing these shows 4 years after the first one went up on RU-vid.

I will admit that it was Space Harrier that got me in to Sega and also the reason why I bought a Master System.

If I was a tad older I could have been around for the 8 bit days. I was a 16bit kid but man it must have looked insane huh lol.

Don't forget Space Harrier 3D!

Was a shame hat you couldn't enjoy the music AND shoot things... I used to ty and fly the Pacifist level to enjoy the music on the SMS

Thanks for your comment, Dbn Polermans. I was at a similar age when I first saw the Arcade machine back in 1985 / 86. As you said, it was amazing to see this machine back then and it kept getting better with Galaxy Force II and Power Drift coming later. This is why Sega is my favourite. They are the company that really got me interested in video games.

it wasn't hydraulic.

Space Harrier was the game that made me know who Sega were. No other game to that point ever inspired me to remember the company behind it. I guess that's why I still love Sega now. They were the company to really pull me in to gaming and pull you in yo what you do now.

Me too exactly! Ever since I saw Space Harrier in the arcades when I was little, I wanted to meet the person behind it. And when I finally got to meet Yu Suzuki in person at a Sega Developer's Conference, I asked him whether there would be a 3D version of Power Drift, which is another favorite game of mine. He answered back there would be a Space Harrier sequel in 3D.. which turned out to be Planet Harrier, the game I've never played in person.

Same here, I discovered the game in the British amusement centers while on vacation in the South of England, and that was the hydraulic version no less. My aunt, uncle and cousin who were with me were as amazed by the machine as I was and there was a huge crowd waiting to play it. It is fair to say that the game was an enormous sensation. Just like you Marc I did not know about Sega before but let me tell you that I got the memo after seeing the game. :D

Thanks, Mamiya645.

@@RetroCore no, thank YOU!

Thanks. It's nice to hear a comment like that.

It is a great idea which is also used by the C64 and I suspect most of the other 8 bit computers of that era. This said, the result is more convincing on the C64 NTSC version which even though it is less colorful seems to suffer a bit less from overlap issues between these "sprites".

Yeah, I know :) But it wasn't much used on the Master System because its sprites capabilities were pretty good. Konami were masters of doing this on MSX. With just 2-color sprites, it was much needed trick. many of their games switched between sprite and tile when needed for the same object in a way most players never notice. They were really great at it.

Oh, that is neat, I was aware that Nintendo did that in the Super Mario Bros on the NES with the coins (there were too many in some places for them to be sprites) but I did not know that technique was used on the MSX. The more I learn about the MSX the more I want to get one and almost wishes my dad had bought one when he bought our first computer. ;)

I didn't mention that on MSX not only the sprites were 2 colors (with one being transparent, so they were essentially just 1 color) but you could have just 4 on each scanlines. Konami made some very neat tricks with the MSX hardware, drawing more sprites than possible in a scanline on purpose so things would "dissapear" as they wanted... Konami's Soccer changes players from tiles to sprites to tiles whenever they are near or far from the ball, Nemesis/Gradius uses tiles for a lot of enemies so they can draw more stuff on screen and so on. They were really the kings on the MSX hardware. I don't think there was ever a company that dominated so much a hardware and released so many top-quality stuff than Konami on MSX. I mean, many companies made very good games on MSX, but Konami was like 5 levels above everyone else both in quality and quantity. But many other games used it. One that instantly comes to mind is Kung-Fu Master from Irem (or whatever japanese name is called on MSX, I think it's either Kung-Fu Achoo or Spartan X, but I always called it Kung-Fu Master anyway :D)... the main character is made of tiles. Since he never moves on screen (but the screen moves around him), it works really well. Where the action happens all you get as background is the black color (which is actually a good thing, since MSX 1 can't do smooth scroll by hardware), so there's only a few tiles to switch when the player moves/kick/punch etc, so the CPU can do it pretty quickly. The MSX is a great gaming machine IMO, *lots* of excellent games on it. If you could grab an MSX 2 or MSX 2+ would be even better;

The Amiga SH Return to the Fantasy Zone (don't think it was ever released for Atari ST) was significantly enhanced with many, many more sprite frames to smoothly mimic hardware scalong, plus it was displayed overscan mode to cover tge entire screen without any black borders at the edges. It contained the remaining levels from the arcade game missing from the original Amiga port. Overall, it's the best hone port available at the time Space Harrier was still relevant/current in the arcade, better than the X68000 port. Very impressive, too bad it's not on this video. You can see it here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZWfWSsVptn4.html

It was. It took 5 days doing 4 hours recording each night. The rendering of the final comparison screen took just under 9 hours to render for less than a minute of footage. The PC had a lot of work processing from of 26 videos on one screen.

Yup, that is why I am a Patr(e)on. People do not realize how many hours of work go into the production of 20 minutes of video. This is an effort which deserves recognition.

Thanks, LEDStorm.

Thank you ever so much, SikSlayer. I like to think my videos have come a long way since the days of archive.org.

Alex K. 😂😂😂😂😂😂

Thanks, Gabriel Zero. This was a big episode to do.

And thank you for watching.

Thanks y0sh1rulez. I wasn't aware of the Apple 2 demo. I'll have to track that down to see how it looks. I really love the early Japanese ports with their squares for graphics. So funny yet still sounds and plays like Space Harrier

Cheers Miika.

Thanks man and cool, my very own hash tag :)

Thanks, Stuart J1210

You're welcome :)

Agghhh, people want me to do Ultimate Mortal Kombat, Welcome to the violence zone, get ready.

Thank you, cpnnpr.

I bet most people in the UK also had no idea there was a better port for the C64. It turns out that both ports were developed by the same programmer how was rushed by Elite to get the original version out. By the time the US Sega pushed version was released he could finish the actual game.

Enter the MAME emulation, bud. But also, you can get it either from the Sega Ages market list or from the games called Yakuza 0 and Shenmue.

@@sonicexereaper6814 I never said I didn't play the arcade version, I've been using MAME since 1998 and played a lot Space Harrier

I bet that was tough as nails to get back on the days where companies didn't even acknowledge the existence of South America, with said market being filled with clones by third-parties.

So very true.

I don't think l ever forget the Space Harrier theme. It's like one of those movie themes you never forget such as Star Wars or Superman.

I'm hoping in Shenmue 3 they add power Drift :) that would be so cool. Maybe throw in Galaxy Force II as well.

Another big Space Harrier fan I see.

Nice, I think I'll check that out. Thanks for the update.

Thanks, SuperKokuJin916. You will not be dissapoited with the Saturn ports. They're excelent.

Cool, that's one game soundtrack I'd love to get on record.

It is plus the 3D screen effect adds a lot to the game also.

I'm not sure what he composed on the NEC machine but I did know he loved it. A big fan of FM Synthesis for sure.

@@RetroCore I checked his wiki entry: "All of these early soundtracks were produced using the FM synthesis sound chip of the PC-8801. Despite later advances in audio technology, Koshiro would continue to use older PC-8801 hardware to produce many of his later video game soundtracks, including the Streets of Rage and Etrian Odyssey soundtracks.[10] His soundtracks for early Nihon Falcom games, such as the Dragon Slayer and Ys series, are widely regarded as some of the most influential role-playing video game scores". But, you know wikipedia sometimes cant be reliable. Btw, I like a lot your work. Thanks from Brazil.

Now that is cool

Ah, owning the original cab would be amazing.

Glad you enjoyed the video. This coming Saturday is the remastered Afterburner video.

@@RetroCore Subscribed, notifications on! Can’t believe your channel never came up before! Lol and just ordered Space Harrier for my Sega Saturn JP, which is why I was searching for ports comparison and was lucky to find this

You'll really enjoy Saturn Space Harrier. If you are able to find the mission stick, space Harrier works great with that. Full on arcade analogue control. Thanks for subscribing!

@@RetroCore Ordered a mission stick from Japan! Can’t wait to try it. Thanks for the suggestion!

That's cool but nit something I thing I could do these days.

Thanks man. Hope to make another 200 episodes in the future. Maybe the title screen Mastodon is a friendly one? Or Harrier just likes to go around blasting indecent one eyed mammoths.

The same here. Space Harrier made me notice Sega and it's been a great ride ever since. Well, until the early 2000s at least.

I would imagine it being close to the X68000 version but at a lower resolution.

@ben owen Well, Panorama Cotton isn't actually scaling, is just really predrawn sprites. If you want to check real software scaling, you should check at some EA titles like the Road Rash series, Outlander, Skitchin' or the First Person Shooters out in the console.

The Sega CD hardware was hamstrung by some poor decisions they made when designing the Megadrive. There were pins on the Megadrive VDP for extra VRAM and an external color RAM but these were left unconnected. For this reason the Sega CD had to scale images internally then make them available to the Megadrive in the cartridge ROM address space and from there the Megadrive's 68000 would transfer them to the VDP's VRAM to be displayed. If those pins had been connected to the expansion port then the Sega CD could have included a 64k block of additional dual ported VRAM and the Sega CD's scaling hardware could have directly presented images to the VDP. And also additional color RAM could have been added to expand the number of color pallets.

I reckon it would be similar to nightstriker version on sega cd. Smooth but quarter resolution.

Thanks. Yeah, I plan to remake a few of the older episodes I the future. The very early shows were kind of an experiment than anything else. I agree with the direction Japanese developers took. Concentrating on the gameplay first was the right approach. It's mentioned many times that western devs (mostly in the UK) wanted a game to look good on the packing so they would always concentrate the graphics with gameplay being an after thought.

I was born in 1975 so I was about 10 the first time I played the full sized moving Space Harrier arcade. It was that game that got me in to Sega.!

Retro Core nice, man. ^.^ For me, I’d say the games like Golden Axe, Altered Beast, Flicky, Kid Chameleon, and Mean Bean Machine on a Sega Genesis that was basically a rewind console with built-in games, House of the Dead on the arcade, and both Ooze and Comic Zone on Sonic The Hedgehog Collection for PS2 were the games that got me into Sega while I was growing up. To this day, I start to obtain more titles and know many characters like Harrier from Space Harrier, Alicia and Wilkins from Valkyrie Chronicles, Ulala from Space Channel 5, Kiryu and Majima from Yakuza, Arle from Puyo Puyo, Columns Goddess from Columns 2, Zephyr and Leanne from Resonance of Fate, Rita from Phantasy Star IV, Ryo from Shenmue, Busujima from Zombie Revenge, Sakura and Erica from Sakura Wars, and the huge list goes on. Also, let’s not forget the father figure himself of the Sega family, Segata Sanshiro. Man, praise Sega for showing me their greatness throughout the years. (: Anyway, aside from that, gotta say, you sure are lucky to play the Space Harrier cabinet since I wanna experience the true gameplay simulation. I know I have most games on home consoles or emulated, but TBH, I believe playing the arcade versions of certain games like Space Harrier, Virtual On, House of the Dead, Let’s Go, Out Run, Super Hang-On, etc. are the best way for true experiences.

Very fair points. What I should have said was that the PC-6001 was a cut down version of a business machine and should have listed the differences.

A link to that American programmer's claim would help, do you happen to have one?

Look up John Sanderson on LinkedIn.

Very interesting info on the Famicom port. I never knew about that. The Rutubo Games versions play exactly like the Arcade machine. While making this video I noticed that many of the western made ports had the player die when he hit ground hedges. This is wrong as they should trip him up, not kill him

You've got to admit though, Harriers gun does sound like it's constantly farting :)

Geo Belmont it doesn't have an arcade release so... Fat chance for Yakumo to cover it

Angel Rivera Santana ah right

Microcosim will be one of the game being covered once I exhaust all the Arcade ports. I've been building up that list over the past year :)

....... until you failed to show the tiger electronics handheld. Tsh tsh tsh.

Hahaha, I wasn't going yo stoop that low :)

That PS2 port is just awful in every way possible :(

Just in case I wasn't clear, and I can understand if I wasn't, I mean that the PS2 version does look quite horrible, and makes me appreciate how good the original game looks.

Yep, I understood what you meant but even as it's own game, the PS2 remake is ugly.

It sure does. I was very impressed with it.

Yep, all except the DOS port. Oh man, that is very painful to hear.

@@RetroCore and the atari 8 bit with its bleeping

Interesting idea about adding the extra chip then writing a driver for it. It could work but wouldn't the game code also need to be modified?

Retro Core Not that I am aware of. Would have to check with superdeadite on this, but I think the MercuryUnit and Polyphonic just can replace the PCM driver file with their own.

Indeed. It's an amazing job.

Yes you really can't go wrong with the 3DS version. It's fantastic.

It's recorded through a 3DS dev unit. It's not my dev unit by the way.

It was such an awesome machine and still is but it's only for those with very deep pockets. These days it's extremely expensive for the hardware and the games. A long time ago I actually had one. Stupidly I sold it due to being in a tight financial situation. Now I can't even think of buying another. It makes Neo Geo collecting (for the most part) seem like regular game buying.

@@RetroCore I just checked and my latest build of Retro Pi has the Emulator and about 500 roms... This will be fun to check out.

I'm sure there are some influences.

Yep, I have Japanese Master System that has that splash screen. It's in FM too.

Sadly I can't get the emulator for that to run as it requires a 32bit version of Windows 😢

@@RetroCore I've been recently messing with MZ-xxxx emulation, and it's not so bad anymore. The easiest one to get running is MAME, but there is no way to speed up cassette loading, and as far as I can tell it doesn't support PCG. Another easy one is the confusingly named "MZ-80B Emulator" - a multi-system emulator by Michael Franzen. It supports lots of Z80-based systems, is decently compatible, and will load cassettes instantly (if you rename tape files to *.mzf and run them from command line), but has an awful WindowsME-era interface, sound strangely off, and is a pain in the ass to download, as the link on the site appears broken (fix it by comparing it with the site's current url). Lastly, there's the Common Source Project. It's the best and most compatible, polished and feature-rich option, but is the most pain in the ass to get ahold of and to get running, as there is zero English, or even Japanese documentation. It's worth it though!

Yep, Shenmue 3 was a major disappointment. So much unnecessary fest quests and useless crap to pad out the game.

Sometimes I'd like too but then again there's some I have no idea about or they aren't documented well. Then there are games which have a billion knock offs or remakes. So I decided against unofficial versions. Space Harrier was an exception 😉

I mean the homebrew ports, which arent pirates or rip offs. Like the Atari 8-Bit version.

Too much blow back from the comments. You see, I don't follow all homebrew so it's easy not know about stuff. If I feature a homebrew for one game but not another I will get a mountain of comments point that out. Something I can do without really.

Ah, that's a shame because by the time you were old enough to apriciate the Arcade it would have been quite old. I was 10 at the time of its release.

My first experience of Space Harrier was at Alton Towers. They had the hydraulic version in an arcade near the Corkscrew roller-coaster. I may redo the out run video in the future but at the moment that one isn't a priority.

Ah, I personally think the 3DS version is the best but let down for me because it's hand held. I just can't get in to any hand held system. So I will opt for the Saturn as its perfect.

Space Harrier and Fantasy Zone have deep relationships with each other. The Sharp X68000 port of Fantasy Zone has a Space Harrier themed stage, while there's Space Fantasy Zone for PC Engine CD, but unreleased, which is Fantasy Zone in Space Harrier style.

Famicom also got a port of Fantasy Zone 2 but only in Japan.

To be fair, at the time of the 32X nothing could recreated the Super Scaler games. Even the very expensive and mighty Sharp X68000 couldn't. I bet the PlayStation couldn't either due to its low storage ram space.

Retro Core strange how in some ways the new hardware of the day was underpowered like that, but then again, look how long it took someone to make an official port of the original Doom that made zero compromises.

It's better than Space Harrier 2 on the Mega Drive. That's a really poor sequel.

Yeah, it was cool to hear all the different renditions of the main theme. I've not played Bayonetta 2 but have played the first one. I was emulating the Atari 8bit version but was running under Atari XE emulation. It should look the same on all of Atari's 8bit line of computers.

That was from Sonic All Star Racing Transformed.

Can't say much against that :)

That's correct. The Arcade is the best because why not, the Saturn is the best home console port, and the 3DS is the best handheld port