Resident evil 2 for the Nintendo 64 will always be my favourite example of an impossible port. You have 2 cds worth of content on a single cartridge and all cg cutscenes and spoken dialogue in tact. Not only that but it has unique content such as the randomiser and outfits. Most N64 ports always compromised cutscenes with slideshows and no voices. Truly a masterpiece.
Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (VITA). Full fat console racing experience with minimal gameplay changes (10 racers VS 8 racers). There were significant cutbacks to the level geometry and art, and many of the post effects were removed completely, but the game ran at the Vita's full resolution and all the physics and world events are exactly the same.
Amazing, I never actually played the VITA version but I love the game. The All Stars racing series was fantastic. I’m not sure why SEGA stopped making them
There's also the 3DS port of it, IIRC. While there are some slight tweaks (like the lack of the slot machine thingy), it's mostly the same plus you can play as your Mii.
I actually prefer the SNES version of Killer Instinct to the Arcade. The difficulty is better balanced and the specials seem easier to perform. It might not look as nice but it plays a lot better.
I hear you, I had a similar experience with Virtua Fighter 2. The arcade was designed to eat quarters, so after round 2 the difficulty curve was insane. The Saturn version was superior
11:43 valve said that the xbox version is not a port, because the development started for pc and xbox at the same time and besides the original xbox is similar to a computer architecture. Still Impressive that the xbox original can run HL2 with half of the system requirements
I knew about all of these except Hydro Thunder on PSX. I couldn't believe what I was seeing with that port. The draw distance for a high speed PSX racer is insane.
Thanks for the comment. Yes Hydro Thunder on PS was actually the last version I played. I loved the DC version, the N64 port is impressive, but the PS version considering the hardware limitations is really outstanding
The SF4 port on 3DS did have a lot of changes other than the resolution, the static 2d backgrounds were not very good looking, and the game ran at 30fps. But it's still a decent portable port.
Borderlands 2 for the PS Vita was awesome! Tested it via emulation and planning to play it on the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro once that comes in, but its a surprising port to see on a handheld of that era.
These are my top video games ports/Rom hacks I wanted to see growing up on these consoles. 10 Tekken 3 on n64 9 Tombe Raider on n64 8 Metal gear solid 2 on game cube 7 clay fighter on the game boy advance 6 spiderman 2 enter electro N64 5 marvel vs capcom 2 on N64 3 uncharted on ps1 2 Dino crisis on Sega Saturn 1 Resident evil 3 on N64
You didn't mention that doom on snes has a super-fx chip without which the snes would not be anle to run doom even with all the downgrades and compromises
I love the fact they managed to do doom on a 16-Bit console. But the reason it didn’t make it was the fact that according to the programmer it could have run a lot smoother and been a lot better. Still a great technical achievement though. They recently recently released the source code so I home the community gets involved.
@@thegamelounge659 That's not the point. The point is it isn't running on vanilla SNES hardware. It would be like bragging about how many polygons the Genesis can do and then whipping out Virtua Racing - without even mentioning the additional chip. Don't get me wrong, it's still impressive for what it is... but much like Virtua Racing, the SuperFX 2 chip is doing most of the heavy lifting.
Dragons Lair on Game Boy Color! No, it's not a reformulated game, It's a direct port of the arcade game! Yes, Digital Eclipse took an FMV laserdisc game and somehow managed to cram it onto a portable handheld that could barely handle a few seconds of FMV, much less an entire game built around it! I can only imagine just how hard it must've been to pull such a project off! Next to X, Race Drivin' and Faceball 2000, it's one of THE most amazing technical achievements of any Game Boy game!
"at a slightly lower resolution" um go look up the resolution of the 3ds, more like a small fraction of the resolution. that is how it is able to run the 3d games on the hardware specs it did.
Rise of the tomb raider on Xbox 360 looks better then the last of us on the PlayStation 3, I would say it is the best looking game out of every Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game
Yes, there is a great DF video out there on how it was scaled back carefully to run on a 360. It’s really interesting, highly recommend you check it out
Randy Linden is an absolute wellspring of "impossible" ports. You featured SNES Doom from his back catalog, but you also could've had: - Quake on GBA...yes, this was a thing, MVG did a video - Dragons Lair on Amiga...the full Laserdisc game crammed onto about 10 floppies 😂 ...and he wrote the Bleem! PSX emulator..what a guy! Other "impossible" ports I've encountered in my time: - Elite on NES...3D wireframe on a tile-based system with no bitmap display - Art of Fighting & Fatal Fury Special on PC Engine CD...even has the Neo Geo scaling and giant sprites - Virtua Fighter on 32X...better than the Saturn version! - Street Fighter Zero 3 on Saturn...its better than the Dreamcast version released a year earlier - Sega Rally on Saturn...even better than the VF2 conversion
Great response, I went for VF2 because on a CRT I actually think the illusion of the 2D backgrounds almost looks as good as the arcade. When you add all the console extras and with modes and difficulty it was a brilliant port. Sega Rally though was an incredible port rebuilding from the ground up. Is Quake on the GBA finished? I ruled out a couple of games for essentially being demos, Tomb Raider also on the GBA I believe. Have you seen the Unreal Saturn Demo? I would love to see them finish that game!
@@thegamelounge659Nah, Quake GBA was never finished/released, a working prototype ROM surfaced a couple of years ago I've seen the OpenLara Tomb Raider port to GBA too. Driv3r on GBA is another insane "port"...open world GTA3 style game on the GBA Not checked out Unreal Saturn, no, but will! 👍
Basically every Wii U port was a miracle lol. Ok, maybe I'm mostly exaggerating, but damn, the Wii U's CPU basically hindered most ports to the system (1.4GHz vs 3.5GHz of the Xbox 360 and PS3), and the ones that ran the same (if not better) than the other console versions can kind of qualify as impossible ports to me at least.
True, although my understanding is that the Wii U was more powerful in other respects like RAM, GPU. It’s certainly an interesting point. The 360/PS3 and Wii/Wii U were really the last generation to have these huge architectural differences
DOOM on SNES also required an additional chip...strange you didn't mention that, yet had to say VR on MD was running an extra chip and was the WORST version.....much like SNES DOOM is renowned for...
True, I guess with DOOM the reason I didn’t include was the developer has stated a few times that actually with more optimising he feels the game could have run even smoother on SNES with the SuperFX Chip and that it could have been a better port. Which is why I didn’t consider it. But DOOM running on SNES in any format is pretty incredible
Pac-Man 8kb and Star Castle (Atari 2600.) These homebrew were literally considered impossible during the system's lifetime. The system that made and destroyed Atari's reputation was originally designed to play Pong and Combat and nothing else. R-Type and Chase HQ (ZX Spectrum. ) This budget computer has no graphics hardware at all. Also, you can only get 2 colors per 8x8 square, so how is R-Type in full color? Race Drivin' (Gameboy) The most playable home version of this 3D simulation racer, by far. Starblade (3DO) Not polygons. Tomb Raider (GBA) Speaks for itself.
@@thegamelounge659Judging from comments by the developer, we won't see the full thing until he can squeeze it into a 32MB cart. (The largest official ROM size for released games.) Guess that shouldn't count, so I'll replace it with Out Of This World/Another World on SNES. It's not even running the CPU at full speed, and the solutions are creative, to say the least.
@@thegamelounge659 The difference between MK3 and UMK3 is that in UMK3, the announcer's name voice lines of the characters and Shiva are missing along with 3 stages, but Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Scorpion, Rain, Ermac, Classic Sub-Zero, Human Smoke (upon entering a specific input right before the match starts) and Noob Saibot were added to the roaster. Also a lot of balance changes, the ability to dial-a-combo from airborne attacks and i 2-3 new stages. The Animalitiy finishers were replaced with Brutality. Overall, all versions of MK3 on MegaDrive were truly solid ports and played almost on par with the Arcade versions because the gameplay was 99% accurate, excluding the inferior, but generally highly impressive for MD's standarts visuals. Same goes for Tekken 6 on the PSP, if not 100% being accurate gameplay wise.
What about mk1 on the switch, the xbox series and the ps5 is like 10 times powerful than the switch. It exists but sadly the xbox one and the ps4 ports don't
Resident evil 2 for the Nintendo 64 will always be my favourite example of an impossible port. You have 2 cds worth of content on a single cartridge and all cg cutscenes and spoken dialogue in tact. Not only that but it has unique content such as the randomiser and outfits.
Most N64 ports always compromised cutscenes with slideshows and no voices. Truly a masterpiece.
Yes I agree, incredible effort. Seeing MVG’s video on it really is impressive.
Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed (VITA). Full fat console racing experience with minimal gameplay changes (10 racers VS 8 racers). There were significant cutbacks to the level geometry and art, and many of the post effects were removed completely, but the game ran at the Vita's full resolution and all the physics and world events are exactly the same.
Amazing, I never actually played the VITA version but I love the game. The All Stars racing series was fantastic. I’m not sure why SEGA stopped making them
There's also the 3DS port of it, IIRC. While there are some slight tweaks (like the lack of the slot machine thingy), it's mostly the same plus you can play as your Mii.
I actually prefer the SNES version of Killer Instinct to the Arcade. The difficulty is better balanced and the specials seem easier to perform. It might not look as nice but it plays a lot better.
I hear you, I had a similar experience with Virtua Fighter 2. The arcade was designed to eat quarters, so after round 2 the difficulty curve was insane. The Saturn version was superior
11:43 valve said that the xbox version is not a port, because the development started for pc and xbox at the same time and besides the original xbox is similar to a computer architecture.
Still Impressive that the xbox original can run HL2 with half of the system requirements
I knew about all of these except Hydro Thunder on PSX. I couldn't believe what I was seeing with that port. The draw distance for a high speed PSX racer is insane.
Thanks for the comment. Yes Hydro Thunder on PS was actually the last version I played. I loved the DC version, the N64 port is impressive, but the PS version considering the hardware limitations is really outstanding
Alone In The Dark -version for Gameboy Color is like most impressive 8 bit game ever.
I have never seen it. Need to check this one out! 👍🏻
The SF4 port on 3DS did have a lot of changes other than the resolution, the static 2d backgrounds were not very good looking, and the game ran at 30fps. But it's still a decent portable port.
That’s an interesting point. I hadn’t really seen that. It certainly still looks great and the character models are brillint
Some more context, the game runs at 60fps if you disable 3d effect
Borderlands 2 for the PS Vita was awesome! Tested it via emulation and planning to play it on the Retroid Pocket 4 Pro once that comes in, but its a surprising port to see on a handheld of that era.
I think the Vita is super underrated and way ahead of it’s time. Some of the games like uncharted, MK9 look incredible
These are my top video games ports/Rom hacks I wanted to see growing up on these consoles.
10 Tekken 3 on n64
9 Tombe Raider on n64
8 Metal gear solid 2 on game cube
7 clay fighter on the game boy advance
6 spiderman 2 enter electro N64
5 marvel vs capcom 2 on N64
3 uncharted on ps1
2 Dino crisis on Sega Saturn
1 Resident evil 3 on N64
You didn't mention that doom on snes has a super-fx chip without which the snes would not be anle to run doom even with all the downgrades and compromises
I love the fact they managed to do doom on a 16-Bit console. But the reason it didn’t make it was the fact that according to the programmer it could have run a lot smoother and been a lot better. Still a great technical achievement though. They recently recently released the source code so I home the community gets involved.
@@thegamelounge659 That's not the point. The point is it isn't running on vanilla SNES hardware. It would be like bragging about how many polygons the Genesis can do and then whipping out Virtua Racing - without even mentioning the additional chip. Don't get me wrong, it's still impressive for what it is... but much like Virtua Racing, the SuperFX 2 chip is doing most of the heavy lifting.
I've always loved seeing a consoles farewell years. The level achieved , destroys what we thought was possible on the early days of said console.
Absolutely, seeing developers use new techniques is always impressive
Dragons Lair on Game Boy Color! No, it's not a reformulated game, It's a direct port of the arcade game! Yes, Digital Eclipse took an FMV laserdisc game and somehow managed to cram it onto a portable handheld that could barely handle a few seconds of FMV, much less an entire game built around it! I can only imagine just how hard it must've been to pull such a project off! Next to X, Race Drivin' and Faceball 2000, it's one of THE most amazing technical achievements of any Game Boy game!
Yes a few people have mentioned this. I certainly need to check this game out. It’s actually really expensive to pick up.
@@thegamelounge659 Expensive? It's going for $20 loose on eBay ATM!
Ahh! I stand corrected. I saw a boxed version and it was going for like £150!!!
"at a slightly lower resolution" um go look up the resolution of the 3ds, more like a small fraction of the resolution. that is how it is able to run the 3d games on the hardware specs it did.
😂😂😂 true. But point is on the 3DS screen it looks great
Been really digging your retro game videos! Thanks! 🍻🤘🏼
Thanks Tony, glad you are enjoying them!
Rise of the tomb raider on Xbox 360 looks better then the last of us on the PlayStation 3, I would say it is the best looking game out of every Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 game
Yes, there is a great DF video out there on how it was scaled back carefully to run on a 360. It’s really interesting, highly recommend you check it out
That Rayman 2 footage doesn’t look janky enough to be from the PS1? I had it on Dreamcast, then on PS2, it was nicer on Dreamcast I seem to remember.
Good spot, the footage is emulated so a higher resolution and PGXP correction. But even on native hardware the game is impressive
Really good list! Make a second list!
Thanks very much! I should make another list of there are enough games for a part 2!
Randy Linden is an absolute wellspring of "impossible" ports. You featured SNES Doom from his back catalog, but you also could've had:
- Quake on GBA...yes, this was a thing, MVG did a video
- Dragons Lair on Amiga...the full Laserdisc game crammed onto about 10 floppies 😂
...and he wrote the Bleem! PSX emulator..what a guy!
Other "impossible" ports I've encountered in my time:
- Elite on NES...3D wireframe on a tile-based system with no bitmap display
- Art of Fighting & Fatal Fury Special on PC Engine CD...even has the Neo Geo scaling and giant sprites
- Virtua Fighter on 32X...better than the Saturn version!
- Street Fighter Zero 3 on Saturn...its better than the Dreamcast version released a year earlier
- Sega Rally on Saturn...even better than the VF2 conversion
Great response, I went for VF2 because on a CRT I actually think the illusion of the 2D backgrounds almost looks as good as the arcade. When you add all the console extras and with modes and difficulty it was a brilliant port. Sega Rally though was an incredible port rebuilding from the ground up.
Is Quake on the GBA finished? I ruled out a couple of games for essentially being demos, Tomb Raider also on the GBA I believe.
Have you seen the Unreal Saturn Demo? I would love to see them finish that game!
@@thegamelounge659Nah, Quake GBA was never finished/released, a working prototype ROM surfaced a couple of years ago
I've seen the OpenLara Tomb Raider port to GBA too.
Driv3r on GBA is another insane "port"...open world GTA3 style game on the GBA
Not checked out Unreal Saturn, no, but will! 👍
Great list! I kept thinking is he going to include... and you invariably did 🙂
Nice, glad you enjoy the video!
Basically every Wii U port was a miracle lol.
Ok, maybe I'm mostly exaggerating, but damn, the Wii U's CPU basically hindered most ports to the system (1.4GHz vs 3.5GHz of the Xbox 360 and PS3), and the ones that ran the same (if not better) than the other console versions can kind of qualify as impossible ports to me at least.
True, although my understanding is that the Wii U was more powerful in other respects like RAM, GPU. It’s certainly an interesting point. The 360/PS3 and Wii/Wii U were really the last generation to have these huge architectural differences
Portal rom hack still gets me
This looks amazing. I can’t wait to try it. Shame the latest version is the final version. Would have been incredible!
test drive and midnight club L.A on psp were amazing ports too.
I should play some MC: LA. Picked it up a few years ago but thought I’d wait for the Xbox 360 version
DOOM on SNES also required an additional chip...strange you didn't mention that, yet had to say VR on MD was running an extra chip and was the WORST version.....much like SNES DOOM is renowned for...
True, I guess with DOOM the reason I didn’t include was the developer has stated a few times that actually with more optimising he feels the game could have run even smoother on SNES with the SuperFX Chip and that it could have been a better port. Which is why I didn’t consider it. But DOOM running on SNES in any format is pretty incredible
@@thegamelounge659 SNES DOOM is a amazing conversion for sure. The maps are even more accurate than the Jaguar ports.
It truly is incredible.
Pac-Man 8kb and Star Castle (Atari 2600.) These homebrew were literally considered impossible during the system's lifetime. The system that made and destroyed Atari's reputation was originally designed to play Pong and Combat and nothing else.
R-Type and Chase HQ (ZX Spectrum. ) This budget computer has no graphics hardware at all. Also, you can only get 2 colors per 8x8 square, so how is R-Type in full color?
Race Drivin' (Gameboy) The most playable home version of this 3D simulation racer, by far.
Starblade (3DO) Not polygons.
Tomb Raider (GBA) Speaks for itself.
I need to look some of these up. I saw Tomb Raider on the GBA. It looked impressive. Was the full game ever ported?
@@thegamelounge659Judging from comments by the developer, we won't see the full thing until he can squeeze it into a 32MB cart. (The largest official ROM size for released games.)
Guess that shouldn't count, so I'll replace it with Out Of This World/Another World on SNES. It's not even running the CPU at full speed, and the solutions are creative, to say the least.
great video, I didn't know of the hydro thunder ps1 port, thought it was on the dreamcast and n64
Yes it came out alongside the N64 version. Played really well considering the age of the hardware
Great list, really enjoyed it
Thanks, appreciate the comment as always 👍🏻
Great video! Anyway, i'd add Tekken 6's PSP port and UMK3's MegaDrive port
Ahh yes Tekken 6 on the PSP was amazing. Didn’t think of that one. I have MK3 but not UMK3 on the Mega Drive. Is there a lot of difference?
@@thegamelounge659 The difference between MK3 and UMK3 is that in UMK3, the announcer's name voice lines of the characters and Shiva are missing along with 3 stages, but Kitana, Mileena, Jade, Scorpion, Rain, Ermac, Classic Sub-Zero, Human Smoke (upon entering a specific input right before the match starts) and Noob Saibot were added to the roaster. Also a lot of balance changes, the ability to dial-a-combo from airborne attacks and i 2-3 new stages. The Animalitiy finishers were replaced with Brutality. Overall, all versions of MK3 on MegaDrive were truly solid ports and played almost on par with the Arcade versions because the gameplay was 99% accurate, excluding the inferior, but generally highly impressive for MD's standarts visuals. Same goes for Tekken 6 on the PSP, if not 100% being accurate gameplay wise.
Forgot to add Reptile to the UMK3's list and the brand new enemy AI xD@@thegamelounge659
Do you know the titan fall port to Xbox 360? What do you think about?
I actually only ever played the XBO version. I did see MVG made a video about it saying it was pretty incredible. Have you played it?
What about mk1 on the switch, the xbox series and the ps5 is like 10 times powerful than the switch.
It exists but sadly the xbox one and the ps4 ports don't
I haven’t played it. Same with MK9 on the VITA, I hear it’s a fantastic port.
I'm pretty sure that MK1 Switch was mocked to hell and back with how awful and almost unplayable it was.
yk whats crazier than doom 2016 on the switch? doom eternal.
I never actually played it. It seemed to take so long to come out and I already had the XBO version. Is it a better port?
@@thegamelounge659It’s very impressive, I’d say even more so than the 2016 port
Wheres sonic blast for the gamegear 😂
Haha I guess you could call it a port of Sonic 3D… but it’s a stretch 😂
❤❤
Good morning bro
Good morning!!!