Shadow of the Beast. Hmm, interesting...

[_Paul]

Background layer: /cd15628250002.png
Sprite layer: /cd15628250001.png

[RegalSin]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE
     
     
     
   

[ccovell]

I think his point is the artists preserved the Amiga's 32-colours-per-pixel possibility by overlaying sprites and BG.

MLE = Martin L Edmondson?

[jlued686]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

You haven't been banned yet?

[geise]

DMA did an amazing job porting that game.  Reflections should be proud.  Too bad all Reflections does now is Driver.  A new hi-res 2D Shadow of the Beast game would be quite nice. 

Thanks for sharing paul!

[Arkhan Asylum]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

The PC Engine is a computer.  jackfuck.

[Bernie]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

Why oh why are you still here, you freaking MORON!!!!!

[ccovell]

Back on topic:

The Amiga original:


The first 16 colours of this next to the PCE's sprite layer:

/cd15628250001.png

The second 16 colours next to the BG layer:

/cd15628250002.png

Too bad they didn't keep the 320 resolution, but I can understand as you can't get 320 pixels of sprites on the PCE.

DMA were really good for their first time working on the PCE.  They even used the high-res 512 modes for their logo and Roger Dean Beast artwork.

[esteban]

Background layer: /cd15628250002.png

Sprite layer: /cd15628250001.png

Just when I think it is safe to go to sleep... more revelations

[_Paul]

It's always a good idea to flick the sprite/background layers off at random moments, you uncover some quite interesting techniques.

[SignOfZeta]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

I think this comment is hilarious. I do not get this explosive hatred for RegalSin. You people need to learn funny.

[Bernie]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

I think this comment is hilarious. I do not get this explosive hatred for RegalSin. You people need to learn funny.

lol.  Yeah, you probably right.

[geise]

besides the Reflections logo there's other things that I feel were done better in the pc-engine version.  I think the animation on the beast character is a lot nicer than the Amiga version.  There's a lot more frames of animation.  I like the look better in the Amiga version but animation wise the pc-engine has it beat.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The sound is better, and the gameplay itself is better.

The amiga controls suffer, and there's an annoying pause when you go to fight stuff.

The Amiga one still has the best art/atmosphere. 

[Alt-Nintega]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

You haven't been banned yet?

why should he be banned? any proof why he should be banned?

[nectarsis]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

You haven't been banned yet?

why should he be banned? any proof why he should be banned?

[RegalSin]

The Amiga one still has the best art/atmosphere.

The Amiga version was the original, and took advantage of the Amiga sound. It was one of the best music to be created for a videogame for those Amigaers.

[Alt-Nintega]

lol thats funny, you said Amiga 5 times.

[ccovell]

The whole point about trolls and flamebait is....... ignore them and stay on topic!

lucyphotos . com /q40bxqm9pa72xbmq.jpg

[Arkhan Asylum]

The Amiga version was the original, and took advantage of the Amiga sound. It was one of the best music to be created for a videogame for those Amigaers.

What shot the Amiga was the lack of usage in the USA, where the IBM took over, and the Apple already over took the imagery market. Man I love the Amiga.

The Amiga sound is 4 shitty sampled channels with hard panning.  The PCE CD version of the music destroys the fuck out of the Amiga one.

It's great for an Amiga soundtrack at least.  Probably the best actually.  I can't think of much on Amiga that did better.

[esteban]

The whole point about trolls and flamebait is....... ignore them and stay on topic!

lucyphotos . com/q40bxqm9pa72xbmq.jpg

I'm going to read Valis by Philip K. Dick. I don't think I'm ever going to read the werewolf novel by Margaret Carter, but, sadly, I would absolutely love to read a novel based on RI's Shadow of the Beast universe.

[RegalSin]

The PCE CD version of the music destroys the fuck out of the Amiga one.

The Amiga version was the original and without it's success,
nobody would have seen the PCE version 

[esteban]

The Amiga version was the original, and took advantage of the Amiga sound. It was one of the best music to be created for a videogame for those Amigaers.

What shot the Amiga was the lack of usage in the USA, where the IBM took over, and the Apple already over took the imagery market. Man I love the Amiga.

The Amiga sound is 4 shitty sampled channels with hard panning.  The PCE CD version of the music destroys the fuck out of the Amiga one.

It's great for an Amiga soundtrack at least.  Probably the best actually.  I can't think of much on Amiga that did better.

  You are so needlessly harsh on All Things Amiga, and you know you are simply being contrarian. The Amiga soundtrack for SotB is very nice, indeed. In fact, the entire soundscape (SFX, ambient noise, tunes) are very competently done.

Ill stop there, lest I dignify your other cavalier remarks regarding Amiga soundtracks. 

  Of course, I like the C64 SotB tunes, too.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The Amiga version was the original and without it's success,
nobody would have seen the PCE version 

So?  That's like saying "without Breakout, we wouldn't have Arkanoid".  True, but Breakout still looks like shit in comparison.

and, Esteban, I like the Amiga one, but there's no denying the PCE CD's destruction.  The drums alone are like whoa damn!

I liked the C64 tunes too.   That version of the game somehow managed to not suck huge wang.

[geise]

I do wish shadow of the beast on the pc-engine cd kept the backgrounds the same in the tree house level and the castle.  I wonder why they changed it?  Wasn't Shadow of the Beast the exact same version as the pc-e on the Marty?

Sunteam are there any other little graphic things that you could compare in pc-e Beast to the amiga version?

[Tatsujin]

the funny thing is, that EVERY beast version looks so different. hell, even the japanese MD and western MD version are like two different games.

btw, heres nice comparison of "all" the beast games on different platforms:

[Arkhan Asylum]

The western Genesis version was programmed by jackasses

[geise]

Haha well it was published by EA in the states.  Not sure if they did the port though.

[jlued686]

Oh so you inserted the game inside a computer. How wonderful.

MLE

You haven't been banned yet?

why should he be banned? any proof why he should be banned?

It was a joke. The guy seems to annoy the hell out of everyone.

[Mathius]

the funny thing is, that EVERY beast version looks so different. hell, even the japanese MD and western MD version are like two different games.

btw, heres nice comparison of "all" the beast games on different platforms:

So what are the differences that make the US Genesis version worse than the Mega Drive version???

Thanks for posting that vid, Tats.

[SignOfZeta]

You are so needlessly harsh on All Things Amiga, and you know you are simply being contrarian. The Amiga soundtrack for SotB is very nice, indeed. In fact, the entire soundscape (SFX, ambient noise, tunes) are very competently done.

Basically he sticks up for things he feels need sticking up for and condemns things that are too popular, in his opinion.

Amiga? Sucks. iPhone? Sucks.

But Hylide, Energy and China Warrior? Those games are FUCKING AWESOME...even though %99 of the people who have ever owned them consider them more or less totally unplayable. IIRC he even stuck up for the Cybiko.

If we held a poll deciding what the crustiest system ever was, like Odyssey II or Spectrum, and then voted to see what the most miserably boring POS on that platform was, like a sock trading game or a snake clone that only worked via a keyboard that had no numpad and used relative directional input, he would defend it. Its just what he does.

Its only %90 being a contrarian dick though. I really think the other %10 comes from understanding programming much better than most of us and a respect for what has been done with even the crappiest of software. I mean, when we rag on something like...Beyblade for Gamecube, it is, honestly, kind of unfair to ignore the hundreds of man hours that went into it. We do though, because there are hundreds of games released every year. Even the worst ones (usually) deserve some kind of respect, but its hard to recognize that when there are just so damned many of the things.

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Interesting, Paul; thanks for sharing.  You can tell those guys had a passion to make this game as good as they could, a passion sadly missing from so many other devs that settle for 'good enough'.

[Arkhan Asylum]

Basically he sticks up for things he feels need sticking up for and condemns things that are too popular, in his opinion.

It has nothing to do with popularity.  The Amiga is an overrated POS as far as gaming goes.  I was in the Amiga scene for like, I dunno 6-7 years, along with the Commodore 64.  I got tired of that nonsense. 

It's a pain in the ass to work with, a pain in the ass to set up, and the games are largely complete crap with over arped music and lame ass guitar samples.  The machine is powerful, the operating system is revolutionary, and at the time, it was a powerful machine... but nowadays, it's a clusterfuck.

The only games of merit are the Psygnosis games, and stuff you can play on the PC instead.  I think the only game I can recall that is an amiga exclusive that's worth a damn is Agony.  Graphics are usually great, but the games themselves are usually pretty lame.  Games that are on Amiga AND C64 are usually more fun on the C64, for whatever reason.  Netherworld, Menace, and Turrican come to mind.   Shadow of the Beast is better on the Amiga, but still sucks compared to the PCE one...

Anyway, using your logic, I should condemn the PCE.  I don't. The PCE rules all.  Other popular things you don't see me condeming:  NES, Genesis, and MSX.

I don't buy into all the retro chipblurpderping shit that so many others buy into.  Tim Follin can suck it.  His music is nice, but it's nothing to drop your pants and fap to.  It's going to take more than shiney graphics on an Amiga to impress me.  I had an Amiga 500 growing up.  I played plenty of crap on it when it was current.  You know what I did? I said

"this blows" and played Sega and TG-16 instead.  Or I fired up Doom, Might and Magic, D&D games, and tons of other PC stuff that played better than the Amiga games.

Amiga? Sucks. iPhone? Sucks.

Yes, and yes! Apple stopped delivering useful products sometime in the early 90s.  I love the Apple ][ line of computers, and the early power macs and shit.  This new iMac crap? All this i whatever crap?  Useless.

But Hylide, Energy and China Warrior? Those games are FUCKING AWESOME...even though %99 of the people who have ever owned them consider them more or less totally unplayable. IIRC he even stuck up for the Cybiko.

My China Warrior campaign caused people to try it again and some of them even went "oh , hey this is pretty good".  It was like turning a light switch on for some. 

Hydlide?  Most of the complainers are dumbasses. It isn't Hydlide's fault that roundeye is too stupid to read the instructions and compares everything to Zelda.  The game must not be that bad, considering it got the same kind of remake treatment Ys got in Japan for Windows. 

If we held a poll deciding what the crustiest system ever was, like Odyssey II or Spectrum, and then voted to see what the most miserably boring POS on that platform was, like a sock trading game or a snake clone that only worked via a keyboard that had no numpad and used relative directional input, he would defend it. Its just what he does.

No I wouldn't.  I defend things that get shit on unfairly by ignorant tools.

Its only %90 being a contrarian dick though. I really think the other %10 comes from understanding programming much better than most of us and a respect for what has been done with even the crappiest of software.

Not to mention how games like Hydlide paved the way for bigger things, and how China Warrior, the first game for the PCE, dwarfed all the other games at the time.  It's even got parallax.

[_Paul]

/timfollinisgod.jpg

[Alt-Nintega]

^ whos that?

[_Paul]

^ whos that?

TIM
EFFING
FOLLIN

[Arkhan Asylum]

You linked some of his stuff that isn't annoying, at least!

LED Storm is his best work, IMO.

[Bernie]

Ok, so I just watched the video. Here is what I found or think.

1.  Why does the Atari ST version have no music?  Sound effects only...  wth?

2. Both the Genesis versions along with the Commodore Amiga version have blimps in the background of different sizes flying around...  Whats up with that?

3. Sound and music wise, I found the PC Engine version to be the best, of course this is just my opinion.  Far as graphics go, I thought the FM Towns version won that one.

[_Paul]

Strange how a lot of people like the FM Towns graphics. I think they look terrible.

/beastfm.jpg
FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR

[spenoza]

I find it difficult to compare the CD soundtrack of the PCE version to other, generated versions. Of all the platforms SoTB was on, the Amiga has the most robust basic generated audio setup (it could be argued the SNES was quite a bit better, but only if you like your music played in a metal barrel). I don't relish much of how that audio hardware was used, but it certainly was capable of quite a bit, especially considering when it first hit the market. I think of the PCE version had used chiptunes instead of CD audio it would have lacked quite a bit of the atmosphere.

[Arkhan Asylum]

The Amiga isn't generated audio.  It's samples.  That alone allows it to at least be somewhat comparable to a CD-Audio soundtrack.

As for chiptunes:

_{► /downloadables/sotb.mp3}

\o/

[CrackTiger]

I like the backgrounds of the Mega Drive more than any other version. Too bad the PCE version wasn't based on that.

[Tatsujin]

^ whos that ?

TIM

EFFING

FOLLIN

QFT!

In my book, he and Tel are teh bests evar!

Both completely different style, but both so genius in their very own ways.

[Tatsujin]

As far as sotb goes, amiga had the best grafic by far and pce and towns had the best music by far. period. close thread.

[spenoza]

The Amiga isn't generated audio.  It's samples.  That alone allows it to at least be somewhat comparable to a CD-Audio soundtrack.

As for chiptunes:

_{► /downloadables/sotb.mp3}

\o/

I lump sampling and mod tracker-style stuff in with generated rather than CD. CD soundtracks do not have hardware limits, effectively. They can be a recorded orchestra or a derp with a Casio monophonic keyboard. On the Amiga you have channel limits, limits to what you can do with samples, and pretty solid restrictions on sample properties as well.

[CrackTiger]

As far as sotb goes, amiga had the best grafic by far and pce and towns had the best music by far. period. close thread.

Is the rest of the Amiga version much better than the first stage? The first stage looks like the Genesis version with poorer color.

[Tatsujin]

As far as sotb goes, amiga had the best grafic by far and pce and towns had the best music by far. period. close thread.

Is the rest of the Amiga version much better than the first stage? The first stage looks like the Genesis version with poorer color.

LOL no way. Did you ever seen the amiga one in real? The coloring is like day and night compared to the genny version. Even the poor Youtube video shows the color difference quite good. The Amiga is much smoother and has much more vibrant colors.

And yeah, also the later levels looking all very nice and great on the Amiga.

[Mathius]

^ whos that ?

TIM

EFFING

FOLLIN

QFT!

In my book, he and Tel are teh bests evar!

Both completely different style, but both so genius in their very own ways.

Damn straight!

[Vecanti]

The Amiga isn't generated audio.  It's samples.  That alone allows it to at least be somewhat comparable to a CD-Audio soundtrack.

Yeah, but they're samples from a soundchip that came out in 1985.  That's the old'n days! 

The Amiga had sh't tons of great games.  Yeah, it had sh't tons of BAD games too.  That's only because anybody could program for it if they had one.  A little different then a console.  So, so much crapware for that thing.

Hard to setup ?  An A500, you plug it in and stick in a floppy.

But the GOOD stuff for Amiga was stuff that was original.  Amiga sucked so bad at 'arcade' conversions.  I think part of this was lack of effort on software developers.  There are some cluster f**ks for sure.  SFII ??


Wings
Power Monger
Dune
Alien Breed
ProjectX
Gods
ChaosEngine
Another World
Cannon Fodder
Ambermoon
Worms
Beneath A Steel Sky
Ruff 'n' Tumble
Lionheart
Battle Squadron
A10 Tank Killer
Valhalla series
Nuclear War!!! Hell yes.

That's not even scratching the surface.

[ParanoiaDragon]

Strange how a lot of people like the FM Towns graphics. I think they look terrible.

/beastfm.jpg
FILTER>BLUR>GAUSSIAN BLUR

While I don't love it, & I'd still have to see it in action, I still find it intersting..for lack of a better word.  Maybe cuz it's look is the furthest for the original.