With the upcoming Pac Man World re-make, why not do an episode like this about Pac Man home ports? The difference between some of the versions of stuff like Pac Man Arrangement, Pac-Mania, etc. are pretty darn interesting, or covering the various *really good and interesting* versions of Ms. Pac Man from the 8 and 16 bit eras.
Far too many obvious choices (i.e. Pac-Man, SF, MK, et al) so maybe a comparison on Spy Hunter (arcade vs C64 and NES) would be nice... ...or you could pull out the stops and compare the arcade and Switch versions of Cruisin' Blast, but that may be a bit much. Switch may be too recent for the Sack...
Game Sack has been a part of my Sundays for over 6 years. Just wanted to thank you Joe for doing what you do. Game Sack is my first show on my playlist for years. Retro Gaming Sundays. Even though I miss Dave like everyone else does, you held it down for a long time. I definitely appreciate the work you have put in. Thank you.
What is the origin of the name of this show? I’m relatively new here but I did have a “Game Sack” back in the day I would use to transport my consoles and games to a friends house, I can’t help but think that’s the reference but I figured I’d ask.
I've been watching Game Sack since the very early days of the show when you used to advertise new episodes on Racketboy. The show continues to go from strength to strength and every episode feels like a much watch. Thanks for continuin to make one of the best gaming shows on RUclips Joe!
In the 80's and 90's, we would go to the arcades to see the bleeding edge gaming technology. Today we go to the arcades to see how games were in 80's and 90's.
The strange dots in the Genesis version of Samurai Shodown are a side effect of switching the palette during horizontal blank to display more colors than are normally allowed.
I'd say that's not a palette switch during horizontal blank but during display... During horizontal and vertical blanking, you can write to color RAM without any glitches.
@@chrisjones6868 You have some time to safely change two colors on hblank. There are some tricks that will make room for more colors: if you disable the display, change about 15/16 colors doing a DMA which is the fastest transfer, and then re enable display then no sprite data will be fetched by the vdp on hblank, giving you some extra access slots to change those more colors, but you will be limiting the sprite quantity avalaible for that line. Mickey Mania does that trick when Mickey is being chased by the moose on the 3d cilinder like looking level: On every hblank, it changes 16 colors and there are no dot artifacts but as said, the sprite quantity limit gets reduced.
I'll never understand why people forget to mention the fatalities in Sega Genesis Samurai Shodown. They actually look really cool and can either cleave people in half or cut their artery and watch them bleed out.
I really like seeing comparisons to different home ports, because it helps narrow down the selection of games when looking for roms. Thanks to this video, I've ended up settling with Truxton on the Sega Genesis, King of the Monsters 2 on Neo Geo and Chiki Chiki Boys on the Sega Genesis.
The Mega Drive versions of arcade games never cease to amaze me. They look great despite the Mega Drive having quite a few limitations compared to the Arcade cabinets or even the other consoles like the Super Nintendo. They also often play better than the original.
Not only that, but imagine if cart manufacturing costs weren't an issue, and developers could use as much memory space they needed or wanted, more animation, stages and extras would come along. But they often had to cut costs from hardware and even development.
Samurai Shodown 1 does NOT play better than the arcade. Lack of animations completely change the feeling of the game. Gameplay wise the SNES version is way better
The MVS version of Samurai Shodown also has the white blood, it is an option in softdip, just so happens "blood" is on by default in the MVS version, and the softdip settings are not accessable on the first game for AES. If you play the home cart on a Japan AES the blood is red by default, the AES and MVS carts use 100% identical ROM chips. Put an AES US or Euro BIOS chip into an MVS (or use a UniBIOS and set the MVS machine onto AES and either US or Euro region) and the blood will be white. Samurai Shodown 2 had an option screen on the AES mode, so you could set the game to Japan region in order to have the red blood, instead of the green blood you got with the blood softdip option turned off.
Hooray for the Retro Core mention! That guy's been making gaming videos since before RUclips even existed! He's always so blunt with when he doesn't like a game, I consider him the true original AVGN, lol
One thing I love about the SNES port of Samurai Shodown is the use of the shoulder buttons for strong attacks, it just works so well and is much more natural than trying to hit both buttons for slash/kick at once. Still keeps me coming back to it even with access to the PC and Arcade versions.
Nice video, thank you. Juste one thing : Samurai Shodown on the AES « technically » has blood. Like many others games, it is the console region that determine this. If you play with a japanese Neo Geo and japanese text, whatever the cartridge version is, you will always get blood (and also some violent finish move like cutting your opponent in half). This explain why some conversions that you showed have blood. Also you can still play with blood and a non japanese Neo-Geo, but for this, you will need to modify the console by adding the Universe Bios that allowed the console to emulate different regions.
[Editors note: AES and MVS carts contain identical data. Since the Neo Geo Home console and the arcade MVS board feature an identical chipset, there is nothing to port.] Also the Mega Drive port of SS decompresses its assets on the fly, which might explain the weird pixel artefacts on screen. Might be DMA related.
I have been trying to spend Less time on RUclips. It turns out that the only thing that I really strongly mess is game sack. iTunes back in from time to time to catch up. Thank you for what you do, Joe!
I lost interest in the channel when it went into a different direction, but I guess changes had to be made in order to pay the bills, when there's not enough people watching to continue supporting it. At least Patreon kept it going just for a little while longer before the changes were set in stone.
@@Cyberbrickmaster1986 I had forgotten all about CGR since he left RUclips to go onto Amazon video which wasn't available to Canada, so I just stopped watching. Just out of Curiosity I just check and the channel is now called CGR Publishing, and his posting music stuff, it seems even the comic drawing is gone.
I used to love the channel because Mark was such a unique voice. Plus, his actual voice and sense of humor was so influential. He became so bitter though. It's a shame , really. Seeing how Joe transformed GS makes me wonder how CGR could've evolved. I miss Mark's quirky attitude and interesting takes on gaming. CGR is legendary in It's own right.
I was obsessed with examining snes and genesis arcade ports to the point of madness, so these episodes speak right to my soul. The Takara ports of Neo Geo arcades were a neverending mine for that. As always, thank you Joe for making Sunday better.
I've been told the SCD can only handle scaling in 16 colours, so that would explain why it wasn't used in Samurai Shodown. As soon as you said "Because of Classic Game Room", I had Mark's voice in my head saying "Truxton!" ^^ A 352-pixel wide mode on the PC Engine? Wow! I wonder why we don't see more of it. Please do Final Fight... Once the new Gen/MD version is out! :p
@@Prizrak-hv6qk Sure, in those games (rather in Batman & Robin than in Batman Returns though) the scaling plan is in 16 colours while other elements like backgrounds and other sprites are using their own palette(s).
I had the Atari ST version of Mega Twins when I was really young. The importance of weird arcade platformers to the European microcomputer market shouldn't be overlooked.
Version / port comparisons are some of the most interesting videos. I don't know which ones I want to see, that's your job to go through the pile and decide what I want to see.
This comparisons are wonderful. Thank you very much! If there's one thing to love in this times is the "luxury" to be able to compare and have different versions and ports of games, that back in the day was almost impossible, or very expensive. I love that emulation nowadays, and "the real thing" for collectors, allows this great side by sides.
I’ve always been impressed with Chiki Chiki Boys on the Genesis. The color palette produces a very SNES-esque look. It’s a great example of what good art direction is.
I was not aware of Truxton until Classic Game Room. When I tried it, it really resonated with me and I ended up loving it for its gameplay and presentation. There's definitely something special about it for me. I agree, the arcade version is way too hard for me. One of the things I love about the home ports, the MD/Genesis more since it came first, is they solidified the iconic image of the skull bomb. Shockingly, in the arcade, the skull is only on screen for a brief moment. I can barely see it in that version. It's a case where the limitations of the home systems led to a big improvement in presentation. As for the two home versions, each one has pros and cons. PCE version's sound effect for the green laser is a bit shrill. For the Sega version, bullets can be hard to see on the final stage. I play both versions on easy and it's still plenty hard. On easy, the PCE version starts off harder, but ramps up more slowly. The Sega version starts easier, but the difficulty picks up a lot more. By stages four and five, the difficulty feels very close. I like them both.
There is something special about those classic Toaplan shooters. The art is kind of awkward, there aren't a lot of special effects and they generally seem a bit plain at first. But, give them a chance and they always win you over with their addictive gameplay. They are good at getting you "in the zone", like good shmups tend to do. Plus, their music got progressively better and more addictive, especially on the Mega Drive. Zero Wing's Stage 2 (Legrous) is just sublime and way better than the generic arranged version on the PCE Super-CD. Hellfire got some absolute bangers too. This makes me want to take another run at the Toaplan catalog. :)
As time goes on, I become even more fascinated with old home ports of arcade games. It’s always interesting to see what choices devs made to work in the limitations of each console (or sometimes due to incompetence, lol.) And Joe, I always appreciate your emphasis on technical aspects of games, especially audio. I’m an audio guy and I feel across the board when it comes to anything with video, audio gets overlooked.
Also, not to assign you more work, but I’d love to see the NeoGeo CD included in these comparisons. I know in theory they should be the same as the AES, but in practice that’s not always true, usually with regard to sound (arranged vs. original soundtracks, for one thing.)
This is one of the best retro gaming channels ever! You guys rock. In regard to comparisons I think Cadash could be a fun one to look at across all releases.
Really entertaining episode, Joe! Comparing the various ports of a game like this is interesting to me, and since you enjoy making these episodes, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more!
Can't blame ya for loving the Tatsujin PC Engine soundtrack above the other versions. Gotta love that amazing PC Engine sound chip, has such a unique sound to it.
Awesome video as usual Joe. You never cease to entertain me with knowledge about a game I'd never heard of or haven't seen in over a decade. I'd love to see Toki be covered in a future as such as this one. It was a Genesis favorite of mine and up until around 5 years ago I had no idea it was originally an arcade game, along with other ports. Anyway keep the videos coming man, you're by far one of my favorite RUclips channels, and you usually make a comment or 2 that give me a good chuckle or outright piss myself. Take it easy man
Do all the "star wars arcade" ports - I was amazed on how many platforms a basically unreproducible vector arcade game with unique controls actually appeared on ! Also marble madness.
I had the MS-DOS version which did an amazing job of trying to look like the arcade game, and plays well because of mouse support. Lightning fast arcade gameplay was not something you usually saw on a 286-based machine.
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair ports between the Mega Drive and Turbografx CD is absolutely night and day in the video and audio departments. Great video as always Joe.
I love comparing ports between systems from the 80s and 90s! It's so interesting to see the differences in music, graphics, or level layouts required due to hardware differences. It's not as interesting nowadays cause it's usually just a difference in framerate or resolution.
Looking back, the 16-bit Neo Geo ports were actually pretty impressive. Considering the specs of the Neo Geo carts and consoles vs the Genesis and SNES the fact that the ports were generally serviceable and not complete hot garbage I think says a lot about the developers who did the ports.
Joe - did you know you are missing a part on how you play King of the monsters. You know you power up? first hold down a button *can't remember which - and a horn will grow out of the godzilla character; which you can throw. When you power up you can hold punch or one of the other buttons and he will do something else. On the third power up the last button does something else again. You have to hold them down for about 5 secs The gorilla robot seems to have the best power up - he chops in half on the third power up and flies around smashing up stuff whilst invincible. (Mega drive clip shows this) Try it!! This makes the game much easier but you can't get hit whilst powering up. That's why they put power down icons in the game to take away your moves.
50% of my Sega RPi set-up consists in arcade ports. Sega consoles were explicitally designed to bring the arcade home, from the Master System to the Dreamcast, and that is exactly what they have delivered.
This episode was 30 minutes and yet breezed, great video. I would love to see Thunderfox, Growl, Ninja Warriors, Art of Fighting, Russian Attack, and Ikari Warriors
You kind of read my mind! What I had in mind was 8 bit versions vs 16 bit versions. The idea came to when RUclips suggested a full play through of Batman The Revenge of Joker for snes. I compared it to the nes version simultaneously to the snes which the nes version blew it away. Please do this episode asap!!
As a French who can see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere in my country (according to videogame developers), I don't really mind these goofy locations as long as it's meant to maximize the fun. It's like a sandbox version of the reality, and it's especially fun to see in combat or street racing games!
I grew up with Chiki Chiki boys (bought in Australia - so EU version I'm assuming). It definitely has 2 player. However you don't get the full game on 2P, it stops about half way through compared to if you play 1P. I only remember because I always got shafted and had to play as the red dude, never got to be blue unless I was alone. IIRC he has better magic or something but physically weaker. Guess the US got shafted on that.
I love the “Game over YEEEAAAH” shirt hahah Another gaming youtuber/streamer named “Barbarous King” plays that soundbite every time he dies in a video game. I love it 😆 it never gets old. Speaking of never getting old, Game Sack is the best!! I really appreciate the fact that I can always count on you dropping a new video every Sunday morning. There’s nothing better than a new game sack video to go along with a fresh cup of coffee.. or should I say, “cup of JOE” 🥁 sorry… I’ll see myself out now……(walks away in shame with head down)
What are some interesting Arcade vs Console comparisons that you'd like to see?
With the upcoming Pac Man World re-make, why not do an episode like this about Pac Man home ports? The difference between some of the versions of stuff like Pac Man Arrangement, Pac-Mania, etc. are pretty darn interesting, or covering the various *really good and interesting* versions of Ms. Pac Man from the 8 and 16 bit eras.
What about fighting games like kof for ps1 or virtua fighter 4 for ps2.
Panzer Bandit would be a compelling title to compare. 😎
Far too many obvious choices (i.e. Pac-Man, SF, MK, et al) so maybe a comparison on Spy Hunter (arcade vs C64 and NES) would be nice...
...or you could pull out the stops and compare the arcade and Switch versions of Cruisin' Blast, but that may be a bit much. Switch may be too recent for the Sack...
@Brian Babin Big fan of primal rage. I had the DOS, SNES and Game Boy version and they were all good as far as i remember.
Game Sack has been a part of my Sundays for over 6 years. Just wanted to thank you Joe for doing what you do. Game Sack is my first show on my playlist for years. Retro Gaming Sundays. Even though I miss Dave like everyone else does, you held it down for a long time. I definitely appreciate the work you have put in. Thank you.
What is the origin of the name of this show? I’m relatively new here but I did have a “Game Sack” back in the day I would use to transport my consoles and games to a friends house, I can’t help but think that’s the reference but I figured I’d ask.
@@Ephesians-yn8ux I believe it is short for Game Ball Sack.
Hey, you'll probably know the answer. Do you know why Dave isn't on anymore?? Thanks in advance.
@@Ephesians-yn8ux Maybe! But I've seen all their episodes and they never explain it as far as I know. Game Sack is just . . . Game Sack, y'know?
@@shredbraahh8606 Dave focused on his family. The show was taking too much of his free time and he needed to be a dad. He pops in when he can though.
I've been watching Game Sack since the very early days of the show when you used to advertise new episodes on Racketboy. The show continues to go from strength to strength and every episode feels like a much watch. Thanks for continuin to make one of the best gaming shows on RUclips Joe!
Wow, Racketboy. That feels like forever ago!
One of the best? With Classic Game Room gone Game Sack is number one!
I just discovered game sack two weeks ago and I can safely say it's the best channel on youtube
You lucky sonofabitch. You've got so much quality content to go through.
Welcome to the club bro.
being consistent goes a long way
Too bad Dave isn't in the videos but you have years of old episodes to enjoy the duo
Yeah man this is a great game review show.
In the 80's and 90's, we would go to the arcades to see the bleeding edge gaming technology. Today we go to the arcades to see how games were in 80's and 90's.
And we stay home to get nickel and dimed.
who cares man really ?????
pffff so boring
Today, we would save money to afford high end PC to play anything on ultra at 4k and above.
Gaming PC is the successor of Arcades.
@@mentalhell4846 So true.
Aww, CGR shout out! I’m getting misty eyed! “TRUXTON!!!!!!!”
Joe is a treasure. That Skitchin' skit had me in tears.
The strange dots in the Genesis version of Samurai Shodown are a side effect of switching the palette during horizontal blank to display more colors than are normally allowed.
Shut up nerd ❤️
I'd say that's not a palette switch during horizontal blank but during display... During horizontal and vertical blanking, you can write to color RAM without any glitches.
@@matiasd.7755 As far as I know vblank is safe but writing to CRAM during hblank will always result in the garbage pixels.
@@chrisjones6868 You have some time to safely change two colors on hblank. There are some tricks that will make room for more colors: if you disable the display, change about 15/16 colors doing a DMA which is the fastest transfer, and then re enable display then no sprite data will be fetched by the vdp on hblank, giving you some extra access slots to change those more colors, but you will be limiting the sprite quantity avalaible for that line. Mickey Mania does that trick when Mickey is being chased by the moose on the 3d cilinder like looking level: On every hblank, it changes 16 colors and there are no dot artifacts but as said, the sprite quantity limit gets reduced.
I stand corrected! Thanks for the info. I had no idea you can sacrifice sprites to remove the dots. That's some advanced stuff.
I was happy you shouted out retrocore.....he has been doing videos for a long long time...infact even before RUclips was really a thing
During times of uncertainty I'm thankful Game Sack never disappoints.
I'll never understand why people forget to mention the fatalities in Sega Genesis Samurai Shodown. They actually look really cool and can either cleave people in half or cut their artery and watch them bleed out.
Awesome Mark from Retrocore contributed to the episode. Love his battle of the ports.
I did. Actually, Joe reached out for some assistance. It was a pleasure to contribute to Game Sack.
@@RetroCore I love that I'm reading this in your voice.
@@RetroCore that’s pretty cool! Is this why we held back on TATE MODE!!! 😂😂
@@RetroCore I know you! Lol!
@@RetroCore only just read...
I really like seeing comparisons to different home ports, because it helps narrow down the selection of games when looking for roms. Thanks to this video, I've ended up settling with Truxton on the Sega Genesis, King of the Monsters 2 on Neo Geo and Chiki Chiki Boys on the Sega Genesis.
The Mega Drive versions of arcade games never cease to amaze me. They look great despite the Mega Drive having quite a few limitations compared to the Arcade cabinets or even the other consoles like the Super Nintendo. They also often play better than the original.
Not only that, but imagine if cart manufacturing costs weren't an issue, and developers could use as much memory space they needed or wanted, more animation, stages and extras would come along. But they often had to cut costs from hardware and even development.
Samurai Shodown 1 does NOT play better than the arcade. Lack of animations completely change the feeling of the game.
Gameplay wise the SNES version is way better
Nah your bias the snes port of samurai showdown is superior
The MVS version of Samurai Shodown also has the white blood, it is an option in softdip, just so happens "blood" is on by default in the MVS version, and the softdip settings are not accessable on the first game for AES. If you play the home cart on a Japan AES the blood is red by default, the AES and MVS carts use 100% identical ROM chips. Put an AES US or Euro BIOS chip into an MVS (or use a UniBIOS and set the MVS machine onto AES and either US or Euro region) and the blood will be white.
Samurai Shodown 2 had an option screen on the AES mode, so you could set the game to Japan region in order to have the red blood, instead of the green blood you got with the blood softdip option turned off.
“No I’m not gonna say it” I was expecting a huge tate mode there haha, well done. Also please can someone make a tate mode compilation?
He knew everyone was expecting it too.
He didn't need to say it, I'm pretty confident we _all_ shouted at our screens anyway
We were all thinking it. 😂
Hooray for the Retro Core mention! That guy's been making gaming videos since before RUclips even existed! He's always so blunt with when he doesn't like a game, I consider him the true original AVGN, lol
Cracking tf up at the Grand Canyon/Mount Rushmore thing lolol 26:34
"No, I'm not gonna say it." Suddenly, I love you, Joe.
One thing I love about the SNES port of Samurai Shodown is the use of the shoulder buttons for strong attacks, it just works so well and is much more natural than trying to hit both buttons for slash/kick at once. Still keeps me coming back to it even with access to the PC and Arcade versions.
everytime i see a new game sack episode pop up i stop everything im doing and watch it!
Same, bro. Love Game Sack 🤘🏻❤️
Nice video, thank you.
Juste one thing : Samurai Shodown on the AES « technically » has blood. Like many others games, it is the console region that determine this. If you play with a japanese Neo Geo and japanese text, whatever the cartridge version is, you will always get blood (and also some violent finish move like cutting your opponent in half). This explain why some conversions that you showed have blood.
Also you can still play with blood and a non japanese Neo-Geo, but for this, you will need to modify the console by adding the Universe Bios that allowed the console to emulate different regions.
On the MVS version I believe this was operator configurable as I saw cabinets that had it both ways.
@@thesledgehammerblog
Yes, you can configure it on you own on the MVS.
Anyway to "fix" a US AES so the blood is red? Pretty tone deaf move from SNK as this console + cart cost an arm and a leg
[Editors note: AES and MVS carts contain identical data. Since the Neo Geo Home console and the arcade MVS board feature an identical chipset, there is nothing to port.] Also the Mega Drive port of SS decompresses its assets on the fly, which might explain the weird pixel artefacts on screen. Might be DMA related.
I think the lack of blood is because those so-called home consoles were actually intended for use in places like hotels and they wanted to keep it PG.
As a fan of Samurai Showdown i was psyched that you started off with this classic!
I got the worst blisters ever playing King of Monsters 2 for SNES lol. That rubbing the d-pad back and forth was pure torture.
I have been trying to spend Less time on RUclips. It turns out that the only thing that I really strongly mess is game sack. iTunes back in from time to time to catch up. Thank you for what you do, Joe!
Love you Joe! Thanks for all your hard work!
Also, Skitchen has the BEST SOUNDTRACK from almost any 16 bit video game!
ending skit is hilarious lol
That Truxton shade! Haha... Mark from CGR will be pissed. Oh wait its not 2009 any more :( Looking forward the next left in the arcade episode too
"No, I'm not going to say it"
Inside joke reward for long time fans of the series. Love it.
Speaking of Classic Game Room,it's kinda sucks that he will never review Truxton 2
I lost interest in the channel when it went into a different direction, but I guess changes had to be made in order to pay the bills, when there's not enough people watching to continue supporting it. At least Patreon kept it going just for a little while longer before the changes were set in stone.
@@Cyberbrickmaster1986 I had forgotten all about CGR since he left RUclips to go onto Amazon video which wasn't available to Canada, so I just stopped watching. Just out of Curiosity I just check and the channel is now called CGR Publishing, and his posting music stuff, it seems even the comic drawing is gone.
@@AnalogX64 I still remember when Derek had that RUclips channel all about being the manliest man.
I used to love the channel because Mark was such a unique voice. Plus, his actual voice and sense of humor was so influential. He became so bitter though. It's a shame , really. Seeing how Joe transformed GS makes me wonder how CGR could've evolved. I miss Mark's quirky attitude and interesting takes on gaming. CGR is legendary in It's own right.
It’s a shame what happened with CGR, he could be massive now had he stuck at it and not chased the greed.
Still the greatest gaming youtube channel.
I was obsessed with examining snes and genesis arcade ports to the point of madness, so these episodes speak right to my soul. The Takara ports of Neo Geo arcades were a neverending mine for that. As always, thank you Joe for making Sunday better.
I've been told the SCD can only handle scaling in 16 colours, so that would explain why it wasn't used in Samurai Shodown.
As soon as you said "Because of Classic Game Room", I had Mark's voice in my head saying "Truxton!" ^^
A 352-pixel wide mode on the PC Engine? Wow! I wonder why we don't see more of it.
Please do Final Fight... Once the new Gen/MD version is out! :p
What new version?
@@kekeke8988 Final Fight Ultimate!
Soul Star and Batman Returns sure don't look like they are only using 16 colors. Must something more complicated than that.
@@Prizrak-hv6qk Sure, in those games (rather in Batman & Robin than in Batman Returns though) the scaling plan is in 16 colours while other elements like backgrounds and other sprites are using their own palette(s).
Shout out to my man old CGR from back in the day!
I had the Atari ST version of Mega Twins when I was really young. The importance of weird arcade platformers to the European microcomputer market shouldn't be overlooked.
Version / port comparisons are some of the most interesting videos. I don't know which ones I want to see, that's your job to go through the pile and decide what I want to see.
This comparisons are wonderful. Thank you very much! If there's one thing to love in this times is the "luxury" to be able to compare and have different versions and ports of games, that back in the day was almost impossible, or very expensive. I love that emulation nowadays, and "the real thing" for collectors, allows this great side by sides.
This was the most I’ve laughed at any of your post-credits sketches so far. Thank you!!!
Its now 100th episode since Dave left Game Sack. I missed Dave….
Holy shit, 100 whole eps. I miss Dave too, but Joe has been doing such a damn good job by himself. I'm glad he's been trucking ever since then
I miss him too. I hope he's doing okay.
Damn. 100 episodes later... I wonder how many bicycles he sold since then?
i miss dddddave :(
hahahahahahah what a cry baby
who cares dave is gone now
I’ve always been impressed with Chiki Chiki Boys on the Genesis. The color palette produces a very SNES-esque look. It’s a great example of what good art direction is.
who
cares
man
games are for young punks
First video sunday morning and the ''Mount Rushmore in The Grand Canyon'' picture... Man tell you what lifted my mood ten fold for the day!
Another great video from Game Sack. I appreciate all that you do, Joe! Thanks for all the great content.
I was not aware of Truxton until Classic Game Room. When I tried it, it really resonated with me and I ended up loving it for its gameplay and presentation. There's definitely something special about it for me. I agree, the arcade version is way too hard for me. One of the things I love about the home ports, the MD/Genesis more since it came first, is they solidified the iconic image of the skull bomb. Shockingly, in the arcade, the skull is only on screen for a brief moment. I can barely see it in that version. It's a case where the limitations of the home systems led to a big improvement in presentation. As for the two home versions, each one has pros and cons. PCE version's sound effect for the green laser is a bit shrill. For the Sega version, bullets can be hard to see on the final stage. I play both versions on easy and it's still plenty hard. On easy, the PCE version starts off harder, but ramps up more slowly. The Sega version starts easier, but the difficulty picks up a lot more. By stages four and five, the difficulty feels very close. I like them both.
There is something special about those classic Toaplan shooters. The art is kind of awkward, there aren't a lot of special effects and they generally seem a bit plain at first. But, give them a chance and they always win you over with their addictive gameplay. They are good at getting you "in the zone", like good shmups tend to do. Plus, their music got progressively better and more addictive, especially on the Mega Drive. Zero Wing's Stage 2 (Legrous) is just sublime and way better than the generic arranged version on the PCE Super-CD. Hellfire got some absolute bangers too. This makes me want to take another run at the Toaplan catalog. :)
As time goes on, I become even more fascinated with old home ports of arcade games. It’s always interesting to see what choices devs made to work in the limitations of each console (or sometimes due to incompetence, lol.) And Joe, I always appreciate your emphasis on technical aspects of games, especially audio. I’m an audio guy and I feel across the board when it comes to anything with video, audio gets overlooked.
Also, not to assign you more work, but I’d love to see the NeoGeo CD included in these comparisons. I know in theory they should be the same as the AES, but in practice that’s not always true, usually with regard to sound (arranged vs. original soundtracks, for one thing.)
Man I love you Joe. Creator of super cool content for years and years.
As a wise man once said, “With spaceships red blue and green, you can hear the ladies scream ‘We want Truxton!’”
Good times.
"Oh yeah, that's bound to go platinum."
You sound like a real EXPART.
Came here to sing the song
This is one of the best retro gaming channels ever! You guys rock. In regard to comparisons I think Cadash could be a fun one to look at across all releases.
Really entertaining episode, Joe! Comparing the various ports of a game like this is interesting to me, and since you enjoy making these episodes, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing more!
good to see a fresh sack!
LOL
These videos are always a treat.
Thanks!
Thanks again Project Mayhem!
Bizarrely wholesome that I remember Truxton specifically from CGR videos I watched like 14y ago and now it's practically a meme
Can't blame ya for loving the Tatsujin PC Engine soundtrack above the other versions. Gotta love that amazing PC Engine sound chip, has such a unique sound to it.
31:20 This has to be the best Game Sack mini skit I've seen so far.
Sunday morning in the UK with Game Sack. Like Saturday morning cartoons but as a grown up....... On a Sunday........ Lol
I can't unsee the flickering shadows on Samurai Shodown, EVEN the arcade, now. I remember really liking the SNES one.
New Game Sack! Thank you for all your hard work and passion! I love anything arcade related. 😎
I love how he critiques for a living yet feels the need to snap back when people critique him.
Awesome video as usual Joe. You never cease to entertain me with knowledge about a game I'd never heard of or haven't seen in over a decade. I'd love to see Toki be covered in a future as such as this one. It was a Genesis favorite of mine and up until around 5 years ago I had no idea it was originally an arcade game, along with other ports. Anyway keep the videos coming man, you're by far one of my favorite RUclips channels, and you usually make a comment or 2 that give me a good chuckle or outright piss myself. Take it easy man
Do all the "star wars arcade" ports - I was amazed on how many platforms a basically unreproducible vector arcade game with unique controls actually appeared on !
Also marble madness.
I had the MS-DOS version which did an amazing job of trying to look like the arcade game, and plays well because of mouse support. Lightning fast arcade gameplay was not something you usually saw on a 286-based machine.
The Atari ST version was dead-on perfect. Loved it!
Wonder Boy III: Monster Lair ports between the Mega Drive and Turbografx CD is absolutely night and day in the video and audio departments. Great video as always Joe.
Used to love playing most of these games at the skating ring arcade.
TRUXTON...
Mark from Classic Game Room
shall always be missed.
loved the skit at the end, I could even say you are really good at skitting
You should've asked Dave to do this one with you. Just because he's not in Game Sack doesn't mean he can't show up and be a cool dude.
Joe, hearing you whisper "secret menu" really did it for me.
It’s SACK time !!
I've never commented but I've always enjoyed the hell out of your skits man they always give me a good laugh. Thanks for the years of entertainment.
I love comparing ports between systems from the 80s and 90s! It's so interesting to see the differences in music, graphics, or level layouts required due to hardware differences. It's not as interesting nowadays cause it's usually just a difference in framerate or resolution.
Me too, I like "battle of the ports" YT channel
Love that T-shirt. I heard that more times than I care to remember, back in the day.
He's finally talking about Chiki Chiki Boys! I've waited years for this!
Nice shout out to Mark….👏
Looking back, the 16-bit Neo Geo ports were actually pretty impressive. Considering the specs of the Neo Geo carts and consoles vs the Genesis and SNES the fact that the ports were generally serviceable and not complete hot garbage I think says a lot about the developers who did the ports.
I eagerly await the Game Sack episode on the FM Towns, coming 2028.
I relive my childhood every time you put out a new vid
Joe - did you know you are missing a part on how you play King of the monsters. You know you power up? first hold down a button *can't remember which - and a horn will grow out of the godzilla character; which you can throw. When you power up you can hold punch or one of the other buttons and he will do something else. On the third power up the last button does something else again. You have to hold them down for about 5 secs
The gorilla robot seems to have the best power up - he chops in half on the third power up and flies around smashing up stuff whilst invincible. (Mega drive clip shows this) Try it!!
This makes the game much easier but you can't get hit whilst powering up. That's why they put power down icons in the game to take away your moves.
That might be the funniest ending sketch in any Game Sack episode. 😆
I had forgotten what this channel was called, but today a video popped up and I made sure to subscribe! Love the dry humour!
Thank you Joe, for your EXPART analysis.
Right when late night can't sleep debating about jumping out the window depression sets in. Boom! Game sack be like calm down.
50% of my Sega RPi set-up consists in arcade ports. Sega consoles were explicitally designed to bring the arcade home, from the Master System to the Dreamcast, and that is exactly what they have delivered.
Last bit was so well done I was falling asleep and that came on and being in that limbo state just before sleep and hearing that was really funny
Late night game sack videos are the Best
I really like the re-drawn cute gameboy sprites for Samurai Spirits
This episode was 30 minutes and yet breezed, great video. I would love to see Thunderfox, Growl, Ninja Warriors, Art of Fighting, Russian Attack, and Ikari Warriors
it's wild to see how different ideas of quality can be
That has to be the funniest end credits scene yet! Thanks for the great laugh 😂
im so glad you got SKITCHIN' now you can be bad ass in the 90s
Hey, Retro Core is a great channel. Good to know you guys are pals.
I'm a simple guy. When my dude Joe uploads a new quality Game Sack episode, I smash that like button.
Simple indeed.
Loving that neocon beard after so many years.
Random references to Garry Kitchen, this is why I watch Game Sack
The AES version does have red blood if played on a japanese AES or with universe BIOS region change.
True.
You kind of read my mind! What I had in mind was 8 bit versions vs 16 bit versions. The idea came to when RUclips suggested a full play through of Batman The Revenge of Joker for snes. I compared it to the nes version simultaneously to the snes which the nes version blew it away. Please do this episode asap!!
SNK's vision of the Grand Canyon is just following in the footsteps of Sega's Racing Hero which features New York City inside of the Grand Canyon.
As a French who can see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere in my country (according to videogame developers), I don't really mind these goofy locations as long as it's meant to maximize the fun. It's like a sandbox version of the reality, and it's especially fun to see in combat or street racing games!
Loved samurai showdown back in the day still play it today good stuff.
I grew up with Chiki Chiki boys (bought in Australia - so EU version I'm assuming). It definitely has 2 player. However you don't get the full game on 2P, it stops about half way through compared to if you play 1P. I only remember because I always got shafted and had to play as the red dude, never got to be blue unless I was alone. IIRC he has better magic or something but physically weaker.
Guess the US got shafted on that.
I love the “Game over YEEEAAAH” shirt hahah Another gaming youtuber/streamer named “Barbarous King” plays that soundbite every time he dies in a video game. I love it 😆 it never gets old. Speaking of never getting old, Game Sack is the best!! I really appreciate the fact that I can always count on you dropping a new video every Sunday morning. There’s nothing better than a new game sack video to go along with a fresh cup of coffee.. or should I say, “cup of JOE” 🥁 sorry… I’ll see myself out now……(walks away in shame with head down)
That Skitchin' bit is gold.