/vr/ - Retro Games

[Anonymous No.4985351]

Ok, so we have a few threads about MAME, but no one about which are the best versions of a game.
For example, The Simpsons arcade is better in the japanese version, with more balanced difficulty, new moves and also in english too!
Aliens by Konami has a better japanese version too, easier than the world version, and with a few changes in graphics.
Rastan by Taito has an english intro in the japanese version.

Anyone knows more better versions of MAME games? It can be regional differences, or just revisions with bugfixes. I believe Final Fight had a more refined and later version released but I don't have any more info about that.

[Anonymous No.4985863]

>>4985351
The 3 i know off the top of my head are:
Undercover Cops: Alpha Renewal version - this is the full complete version of the game and contains all the moves and levels etc.
Strider Japan Resale version - This has the correct music. The other ones are missing tracks and re-use other ones in their place.
Vendetta Japanese - The others are heavily censored.
There are shitloads more. Grab the history.dat file as it often has variant information.
Another good place to check is TCRF.net.

[Anonymous No.4985872]

Magical Drop 3 and Matrimelee got cucked pretty bad in the audio department in the western releases.
Samurai Shodown V got all endings removed in the US and some versions of Shodown V Special censored fatalities which locks you out of the true boss and ending of the game, but good luck figuring out which

[Anonymous No.4986179]

This is an idea for a thread which I never thought of, but I'm glad to see. I'll be monitoring this thread fo sho.

The only thing I can think of, OP, is that I know there were like 14 revisions of Gauntlet, and that they kept revising it to make your health go down faster, because on early revisions it was possible for skilled players to basically play forever without putting in more coins. The later on the revisions get, the more difficult it is to stay alive, to the point that the final ones make it impossible to not need to quarter-feed. That's how I understand it anyway.

[Anonymous No.4986186]

>>4986179
This is accurate also the newer version removed the nude code.

[Anonymous No.4986236]

>>4986186
nude code in gauntlet? Like, the original gauntlet? That's unexpected.

[Anonymous No.4986341]

There is a version of Afterburner II called “Melody Version” that has an extra instrument playing during most of the tracks. The Sega Saturn port has a hidden option that allows you to choose between the two soundtrack variations.

[Anonymous No.4986358]

>>4985351
the Japanese release is almost always what you want

especially Konami games -- NEVER fucking play the export versions of Konami arcade games, they're almost always completely fucked to hell with shit missing and worse balance
Xexex's world release takes a fairly good R-Type style shooter (yes, really, it plays a fuckton more like R-Type than Gradius) and removes the story, removes several weapons, replaces the lives system with a single lifebar (which you can lose entirely in one go).
It's fucking awful.

[Anonymous No.4986695]

>>4985863
Damn, wasn't those Strider changes also applied to a later USA release? I hate playing the japanese version.

I also remember that you have to play the world version of Golden Axe RODA. The US version forces you to play the full game, even the intersections you didn't select.

I need confirmation, but I believe Haunted Castle version K has the most acceptable difficulty level. Also, the export version of Gokujou Parodius is censored.

[Anonymous No.4986719]

>>4985351
>The Simpsons arcade is better in the japanese version, with more balanced difficulty, new moves

Well huh... If only emuparadise was still up.

[Anonymous No.4986724]

>>4986186
>nude code

[Anonymous No.4986863]

Speaking of MAME, there's something I do find confusing: Why all these versions? Why the constant updates to these ROMsets which can only be supported by their respective versions of MAME or later? There's many dumps out there for each game on consoles, but you can grab almost any emulator available and have no problems whatsoever with any "versions" of these ROMs. I can grab some ancient dumps from a shitty website I don't even know, and it will probably play fine either on this trashy emulator for DOS or the newest, super accurate emulator being shilled left and right.

MAME is completely different. I have to go hunt for ROMsets rather than ROMs. There's merged and split sets, there's "this one version that you have to download and then apply update packs to", it's a fucking mess. And of course, websites only usually provide one version of the whole set in case you're missing something.

[Anonymous No.4986891]

>>4986863
MAME's approach tries to solve the bad dumps causing emulation issues in a very different way to everyone else, by forcing strict has checking of each ROMs.
The reason for that is that arcade board dumps are harder to make and harder to check and can impact emulation accuracy much more significantly.
Problem becomes then as you already know that you need to change the ROMSs often (and technically since MAME includes it's own DAT / checking util it's easier to fix your set)

The way FBA handle that is better, they disable strict hash check if you wanna play the game but warn you results might not be what you expect if you use that old ROM

>There's merged and split sets
The difference might not seem obvious if you're not interested in the subject but oce someone explains it properly it's simple to understand, pic related
Most people use merged which in that image corresponds to "Split / Merged"

>but you can grab almost any emulator available and have no problems whatsoever with any "versions" of these ROMs
Not really some emulators have loose to no standards on what they will play but some will either warn you against or outright not work with sometimes popular formats, mednafen being a prime example as it does not handle .iso at all and even if you give it a proper .cue file to match chance are it won't work properly then
There's also the issue of formats evolving, like for example unheadered/iNES 2.0 NES ROMs both of those ae an evolution of the failing iNES header which has ran out of place to describe all the different mappers out there and you need an emulator that supports those to be able to play them.

[Anonymous No.4986991]

OK, back on track.
It seems the World version of Gradius III is a bit easier than the rest (fewer levels in the earlier levels). Shinobi has audio bugs in the System 16A versions, so you have to play the System 16B ones.

The japanese version of Black Tiger (Black Dragon) apparently has slighty better graphics.

[Anonymous No.4986994]

Metamorphic Force forces a constantly draining lifebar it takes coins to refill in the US ver. Japan ver lets you take your time more. Moneygrabbing tactics again.

Mad Gear/LED Storm has a bunch of alt versions. LED Storm Rally 2011 has a more scifi theme, your car talks to you between stages, powerups and jumping work differently and you can transform into a bike whenever. The computer ports were based on this version. There's also a prototype where you can shoot! Kind of love this game and its weird dev history.

Bionic Commando had its sprites updated from the Japanese Top Secret, which looks far cartoonier.

Rohga Armor Force's Japan version Wolf Fang has route splits and stage changes as well as plot scenes. The US omits this and plays a preset level order, meaning you won't see a good half of the game, nor all 4 of its endings.

Grind Stormer and V Five have entirely different powerup systems - both are worth playing as GS is more scorebased, VV is more survival based.

[Anonymous No.4986996]

>>4986863
because the MAME guys actually want to preserve the arcade games rather than provide free entertainment for underage brazilians, and doing a half-assed ZSNES tier emulation won't cut it

arcade emulation is also vastly different than emulating a console - while regular emulation is just interested in game cartridge code, arcade game code is all over the board in all different chips. if MAME developers made a wrong assumption about hardware and a fix is necessary, this renders the ROM fundamentally invalid with the new emulation algorithm and the redump is necessary. you also don't have to constantly update MAME unless you want a new game, a game you're interested in got fixes or just want a new MAME feature

[Anonymous No.4987675]

>>4986358
Truth, Haunted Castle US is a crock of shit. I feel bad for everyone that had anything to do with it, beyond the dumbfucks that ruined the difficulty.

[Anonymous No.4988816]

>>4986695
>wasn't those Strider changes also applied to a later USA release?
Yeah there is one other release with the fixed music i just can't remember which one it is exactly. I don't think it's the regular USA release. It's one of the ones in pic related.
>>4986863
Arcade PCB's are constantly redumped and the emulation code is constantly updated. When new dumps come out they code the emulator to work with them specifically because they're focused on the latest and most accurate emulation possible.