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/vr/ - Retro Games

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File: 3.51 MB, 640x360, alone in the dark.gif [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9142508 No.9142508 [Reply] [Original]

Why didn't they port Alone In The Dark to the Super NES when the Super FX (or Super FX 2) chip made such a thing possible?

>> No.9142531

probably they didn't anticipate enough sales to justify the special cartridge

>> No.9142547

Is it possible for a stock mega drive to run the game?

>> No.9142552

>>9142531
Lack of FX chip? Super Fox 2 and FX Fighter steal their thunder.

>> No.9142557

>>9142547
>Running at 3fps

>> No.9142569

>>9142557
Hard Drivin is not playable, but runs at over 3fps. maybe this game can run faster?

>> No.9142574

>>9142547
sure but fairly choppy. might run better than star cruiser because a smaller total area of the screen is rendered.

>> No.9142575
File: 102 KB, 960x720, mpv-shot0235.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
9142575

>>9142508
1. The game was actually quite obscure even upon release. It was never a huge hit and it's mostly known for being a trail blazing game.
2. The game would need major cuts to even work on the SFX2 chip. The models appear more detailed than other SFX games.
3. 3DO was the first generation that could actually run the game right.

>> No.9142584

>>9142575
it looks like it's just static backgrounds with a few models though? I guess the issue is the backgrounds would take up a ton of space on the cartridge, Sega CD could've done it. other than that it seems like a great fit for superFX because MOST of the slowness of superFX games comes from the fact that the SNES can only update a quarter of its screen area per frame no matter how powerful a chip you put in there.

>> No.9142602

>>9142575
>The game was actually quite obscure even upon release. It was never a huge hit and it's mostly known for being a trail blazing game.

No it wasn't, it created the entire "3D models within 2D pre-rendered backgrounds" system and spawned quite a few clones even before Resident Evil

Anyway I don't think it can be done on SNES

>> No.9142814

>>9142602
>No it wasn't, it created the entire "3D models within 2D pre-rendered backgrounds" system and spawned quite a few clones even before Resident Evil

And it was a minor hit on the PC, but no one knew about it otherwise. It was not a big game. Mikami played the 3DO port and was inspired to make Resident Evil from it and that game got huge.

Alone in the Dark was not a huge game upon release, and not even many people had PCs strong enough to even run it. It became a highly influential game later.

>> No.9142819

>>9142814
>Mikami played the 3DO port and was inspired to make Resident Evil from it and that game got huge.
>never mention it
What Sweet Home?

>> No.9142826

>>9142819
>What Sweet Home?

Fujiwara started the project as a PlayStation version of Sweet Home without the license. That's just the inspiration though. Mikami didn't know what to do, and he found Alone in the Dark, and then decided to use that as the basis for the game.

>> No.9142835

>>9142575
>1. The game was actually quite obscure even upon release. It was never a huge hit and it's mostly known for being a trail blazing game.
Reviewers were mostly positive(unlike the sequels), and it sold 600,000 copies by 1997. In the mid-90's, doing 100,000 copies in the PC gaming world was considered BIG. In 1998, only 5% of computer games released sold more than 100,000 copies over their lifespan. If you count 1993 as AitD's launch date, it was selling an average of 150,000 copies every year since it's release to reach 600,000 by 1997.
Why are you trying to sound informative over something you don't know shit about?

>> No.9143035

>>9142547
You could probably make a port that is technically playable. But the game would suffer greatly when reduced to 16 colors.

>> No.9143048

>>9142569
Hard drivin has way fewer polys.

>> No.9143056

>>9142508

> Why didn't they port Alone In The Dark to the Super NES

alone in the dark has a lot of "full screen" images as backgrounds, that would be a problem in terms of cartridge size/cost. probably including the superFX wouldn't be the biggest cost of it.

games from the era had a lot of backgrounds but made out of tiles that repeated a lot over the game. Without this "heavy reause", each screen would cost too much in rom space.

if they made alone in the dark in a more fixed isometric camera to reuse a lot of building blocks it could be done cheaper, but it would lose a lot of its charm.

> the Super FX (or Super FX 2) chip made such a thing possible?

Given that its not the scene that is 3d, backgrounds would probably be drawn by the snes and the 3d objects dont ocupy a large portion of the screen, it would run fine.

>> No.9143059

>>9142508
Because it sucks. The smartest thing Capcom did was rip off the game entirely but give it passable gameplay.
>>9142557
12 FPS lower than usual then.

>> No.9143065

>>9142575
>The game was actually quite obscure even upon release
If it was obscure then it wouldn't have gotten a ton of sequels and the head of Infogrames wouldn't have taken the credit for the game and parading around that reputation leading to Raynal leaving the company

>> No.9143073

>>9143059
>Because it sucks.
fuck you

>> No.9143089

>>9143065
Because the goal of gamedev is twofold:
1. Make enough money to cash out
2. Make enough money to keep going
With big studio big publisher mentality you don't adhere to either, you just pray you get enough sales to fall in the middle of those two, so you can reap the surplus as dividends.

But the thing is.
Once you get a entrenched publisher model for financing, and a global game market, priorities change.
AitD sold well for its time, but without external market penetration OUTSIDE its segments. Its different to something like a global console publishers first party lineup, where it will be re released down the line to keep the IP floating to segment its legacy status as a important game.
That means once the studio and IP is liquidated to make off gamedev goal 1, you can get games falling off the historical radar because the studio and output no longer exist.

>> No.9143120

>>9143059
"It's like Alone in the Dark, but actually fun" was a common sentiment back when RE1 came out.

>> No.9143316 [DELETED] 

>>9143059
>>9143120
While it was more accessible, RE1 removed everything great about AITD. Watered down puzzles, practically no melee combat unless you're a knife only speedrunning trannie, much less reading, way too abundant bullets (because capkek didnt know how to design a good melee combat), can't drop items anywhere, can't throw any item to enemies and hurt them, quantity over quality and density level design, and generic 80s scifi theme. It's the epitome of reddit shlock.

>> No.9143317

>>9143316
I've always felt this way about classic RE, but I think they're well designed and replaying is fun. but it was in RE4 that they finally put more effort into the gameplay

>> No.9144867

>>9143035
Mega Drive wasn't EGA/CGA

It could display 61 colors on screen (from a palette of about 64K. I doubt there is 61 colors in the OP image.

>> No.9144874

>>9142569
How did they manage to get Hard Drivin' past QA. It's so bad, and the definition of a literally unplayable game.

>> No.9144878

>>9143316
RE destroys any other game in every category

>> No.9144886

>>9143316
stop pretending alone in the dark is good. its just dogshit trial and error death traps around every corner that you have to avoid by savescumming everywhere. theres no challenge nor is it well designed, its just mindlessly designed crap.

>> No.9144915

>>9144867
This is a gross simplification. Yes the Mega Drive could display 61 colors, but not freely. Those colors were divided into 4 palettes. You can only display one palette for every 8x8 tile. Trying to fit the art into 8x8 tiles is not going to work well since it was not drawn with those limitations in mind. With enough effort you could probably make the backgrounds look decent, but that is only without the polygon layer.

>> No.9144996

>>9142826
Complete make up.

>> No.9145480

>>9142508
The game is pure Britbong shit that anyone who grew up with an actual game system and not "a speccy" would never want.

I don't care about the argument that "it inspired RE!! reeeeeeeeeeee!!" Just because someone turned a concept into something good that doesn't increase the merits of the concept.

>>9144874
This. It's so weird how the Genesis version is vastly superior and more playable. And I say that as a Hard Drivin' fan. Even the GameBoy version is more playable and interesting on a technical level.

>> No.9145492

>>9144886
Alone in the Dark is a good game. RE is a walking simulator.

>> No.9145532

I thought it'd be impossible given cartridge sizes, but surprisingly the floppy version is just 5.3MB. But it would make for an expensive cartridge if you added an FX2 chip, and it'd be hard to justify for a niche game when the SNES was clearly on its way out.

For every game with the FX2 chip that got released, at least two were cancelled.

>> No.9145536

>>9144886
>>9145480

It's unfair to compare it to RE, whether or not it inspired it. AITD is trying to be a spooky ghost story, RE is trying to be a horror movie.

>> No.9145542

>>9145536
AITD is a game and RE is a cheap zombie movie

>> No.9145587

>>9145536
>>9145542
>>9145492
Real chad play Clock Tower or Splatterhouse

>> No.9145596

>>9145480
I enjoyed Alone in the Dark as a kid. It did scare me, and I needed to use a guide (I found one randomly while searching through local BBSs) but it was a pretty fun game with a cosmic horror theme that wasn't overdone at the time. Tank controls were standard back then.

>> No.9145987

Are there modern ports of the original trilogy?

>> No.9146126

>>9145987
An engine source port is in the works. Haven't tried it myself. https://github.com/yaz0r/FITD

>> No.9146145

Nintendies only play bingbingwahoos not creepy games.

>> No.9146146

One of the local rental places had a small 3DO section with this game in it. I remember a kid picking up the box, shoving it in another kid's face and saying "Alone in the dark, that's where you jack it to gay porn every night fag."
That was the only time I ever saw anyone touch a 3DO game.

>> No.9146197

>Starfox Running on Sega Mega Drive/ Sega Genesis
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuYFmIEtLLk

>> No.9146529

Nintendo won't give the seal of approval for scary games they aren't family friendly.

>> No.9146545

>>9142814
AitD ran on potato computers back then, it was literally one of its strong point.
It scaled really nicely.

>> No.9148075

>>9146529
>>9146145
Somehow Shadowrun, Demon's Crest, MK and King of Demons officials exist?
>>9146197
Irreverent to original post.

>> No.9148083

>>9145587
Clock Tower and AitD are the true chads of the survival horror genre.