Normal Hu Cards that made best use of PCE hardware?

[reson8er]

I was just curious as to what the general consensus is on the Hu Card that showed off the PCE the best is. 

It would be easy to say Sapphire with AC but I think the topic is more interesting for normal Hu Cards with no help from peripherals/add on equipment.

For the heck of it, we could even break it up into categories.

From what I've seen, Coryoon/Air Zonk really amazed me graphically, and the Music in Devil's Crush remains some of my favorite of all time.

So what are your opinions?

[Nazi NecroPhile]

Magical Chase has a few graphical tricks up its sleeve that aren't seen much elsewhere, but I wouldn't say it's art in general is anything special (not that it's bad either).

[majors]

Parasol Stars that that stretch effect that happens at the start of the levels.

New Adventure Island is mad full of color even if a bit flat. I love the style of graphics in Legendary Axe. Dungeon Explorer uses stereo sound very well. Blazing and the Soldiers all still wow me in the visuals (and sound).

Of course SF2CE is the best showcase of HuCard hardware, even if the game is not your cup of tea. Parallax bitches!

[reson8er]

Parasol Stars that that stretch effect that happens at the start of the levels.

New Adventure Island is mad full of color even if a bit flat. I love the style of graphics in Legendary Axe. Dungeon Explorer uses stereo sound very well. Blazing and the Soldiers all still wow me in the visuals (and sound).

Of course SF2CE is the best showcase of HuCard hardware, even if the game is not your cup of tea. Parallax bitches!

Totally agree on the Soldier series, NEC and Compile really set the bar high.

[Dicer]

Psychosis(paranoia) is a bit of a looker...

R-type was pretty damned close to the arcade, sadly split for the PCE


Sure there is more but those popped to mind.

[Mathius]

Yeah the stereo used in Dungeon Explorer allowed the creation of some awesome music to rock your ass cheeks off to. To hell with the guy on HG101 who called the PCE's PSG capabilities, "Terrible."

Agreed on Air Zonk. The parallax used is eye-meltingly scrumptious.

Tatsujin was one damn fine late arcade conversion. I can think of only one major detail missing from the Acrade and MD ports, that being no flames forming on blasted foes. And to top it off the soundtrack beats its FM synthesized big brother in audio quality.

[Tatsujin]

yeah math, the missing flames are my biggest hurting spot in that game. if it had those, it would be just 100%!!!

[Tatsujin]

sure street fighter II' is some aaawesome huey in every aspect.

[PukeSter]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

[CrackTiger]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

[ClodBusted]

From my own small collection, I think Bomberman 94 makes good use of the hardware. It is very colorful and has detailed graphics, making it easily match or even surpass SNES games. The chip generated music plays nicely on the ears, especially the level 1 and battle mode tunes are catchy. The underwater levels apply a very cool filter, from which I have no idea how it could be technically achieved. And it has support for five player simultaneous action.

Overall, a good package which ticks many boxes.



EDIT: From what I can see, the Genesis/Mega Drive port called Mega Bomberman had less colorful graphics, sounded worse and did not have the graphics filters.

[OldRover]

I vote for Atlantean.

[PukeSter]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

Sorry I really do mean 1943. Tons of enemies and parallax, with lots of bullets all at once, with no slowdown except for 2 seconds for literally one time. Also some gigantic bosses, though there is flicker.

And this was all with 4 Megs.

And I will also add Darius plus. That conversion floored me, and they still added extra bosses.

But 1941 was proof that the Supergrafx needed to live longer though.

[Otaking]

I was just curious as to what the general consensus is on the Hu Card that showed off the PCE the best is. 

Coryoon instantly springs to mind with its crazy amount of layers of parallax scrolling.

[Tatsujin]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

yeah, 1943 kai is anything else than impressive for PCE standards.

[Tatsujin]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

Sorry I really do mean 1943. Tons of enemies and parallax, with lots of bullets all at once, with no slowdown except for 2 seconds for literally one time. Also some gigantic bosses, though there is flicker.

And this was all with 4 Megs.

And I will also add Darius plus. That conversion floored me, and they still added extra bosses.

But 1941 was proof that the Supergrafx needed to live longer though.

well, the 4Mbit have nothing to do with its technical execution. and they reflect just very well, how poor 1943 kai is, when it comes to graphical details and over and over looped BGs/tiles etc.

[imparanoic]

air zonk/pc denjin is probably the most technically impressive and IMO the swansong of hucard , the sf2, the magical chase, coryoon, the soldier blade

[shubibiman]

well, the 4Mbit have nothing to do with its technical execution. and they reflect just very well, how poor 1943 kai is, when it comes to graphical details and over and over looped BGs/tiles etc.

Have you played the Kai levels too ?

[reson8er]

After getting some more time with Metomor Jupiter this weekend, I would like to give a shout out to the third level and its amazing mode 7 style level. Truly impressive stuff.

WARNING: This is not a HuCard, but it is awesome
Jump to 15:21 to see what I mean.

[reson8er]

After getting some more time with Metomor Jupiter this weekend, I would like to give a shout out to the third level and its amazing mode 7 style level. Truly impressive stuff.

Jump to 15:21 to see what I mean.

I agree with you, but I can't get the CD to fit in the Hu slot... amidoinitrite?

lmao, yea I should have put the disclaimer on that    Just wanted to point out the awesome it is.

[CrackTiger]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

Sorry I really do mean 1943. Tons of enemies and parallax, with lots of bullets all at once, with no slowdown except for 2 seconds for literally one time. Also some gigantic bosses, though there is flicker.

And this was all with 4 Megs.

And I will also add Darius plus. That conversion floored me, and they still added extra bosses.

But 1941 was proof that the Supergrafx needed to live longer though.

1943 Kai does toss around more than SNES games, but by PCE standards it's just an acceptible port of a repetive game. The new content is cool, but Soldier Blade, Final Soldier, Super Star Soldier, Dragon Saber, Tatsujin, Hana Taka Daka, R-Type, Aeroblasters, Magical Chase, Download, Air Zonk, Coryoon, Detana Twinbee, Dead Moon, etc are all 4 meg HuCards. BlaZing LaZers, Sinistron and Chuka Taisen are only 3 megs. But the pixel for pixel arcade-superior port of Sidearms, the much more impressive and variety filled arcade game running on the same hardware as 1943, is only 2(!) megs.

The PCE just happens to specialize in content-packed small sized HuCard shooters that toss around insane amounts of sprites and feature killer music. 1943 would be special on SNES, but it's nothing special as far as HuCards and MD cart games go.

Darius Plus is indeed impressive, but it did not add anything new. Super Darius on CD2 has the extra bosses.

[esteban]

1943 kai is ridiculously impressive, but not well known.

Also, half serious about bravo man.

You're thinking of 1941 Counter Attack. But both are well known.

Sorry I really do mean 1943. Tons of enemies and parallax, with lots of bullets all at once, with no slowdown except for 2 seconds for literally one time. Also some gigantic bosses, though there is flicker.

And this was all with 4 Megs.

And I will also add Darius plus. That conversion floored me, and they still added extra bosses.

But 1941 was proof that the Supergrafx needed to live longer though.

1943 Kai does toss around more than SNES games, but by PCE standards it's just an acceptible port of a repetive game. The new content is cool, but Soldier Blade, Final Soldier, Super Star Soldier, Dragon Saber, Tatsujin, Hana Taka Daka, R-Type, Aeroblasters, Magical Chase, Download, Air Zonk, Coryoon, Detana Twinbee, Dead Moon, etc are all 4 meg HuCards. BlaZing LaZers, Sinistron and Chuka Taisen are only 3 megs. But the pixel for pixel arcade-superior port of Sidearms, the much more impressive and variety filled arcade game running on the same hardware as 1941, is only 2(!) megs.

The PCE just happens to specialize in content-packed small sized HuCard shooters that toss around insane amounts of sprites and feature killer music. 1941would be special on SNES, but it's nothing special as far as HuCards and MD cart games go.

Darius Plus is indeed impressive, but it did not add anything new. Super Darius on CD2 has the extra bosses.

ASIDE: I actually like the 194X series, but I think Sidearms is such a better game, fundamentally.

[PukeSter]

Darius plus had a couple of new bosses. Not many, but a few.

1943 kai is just a game not many people really respect, I do mean moreso the new stages graphically, but it is great as a whole.

The best looking hucard of all time is bomberman 94 imo.

[ccovell]

Sidearms, the much more impressive and variety filled arcade game running on the same hardware as 1941, is only 2(!) megs!

If you're saying the arcade versions of Sidearms and 1941 were on the same hardware, that's wrong.  AC Sidearms ran on an 8-bit 4Mhz Z-80 Capcom board with less capable graphics hardware (same as Commando and 1943), whereas 1941 ran on the famous and rather more capable 16-bit 10Mhz 68000 CPS hardware.

[CrackTiger]

Sidearms, the much more impressive and variety filled arcade game running on the same hardware as 1941, is only 2(!) megs!

If you're saying the arcade versions of Sidearms and 1941 were on the same hardware, that's wrong.  AC Sidearms ran on an 8-bit 4Mhz Z-80 Capcom board with less capable graphics hardware (same as Commando and 1943), whereas 1941 ran on the famous and rather more capable 16-bit 10Mhz 68000 CPS hardware.

Mistype. Meant the game we were talking about: 1943.

Darius plus had a couple of new bosses. Not many, but a few.

Wow, it looks like it might have as much as 50% more bosses than the arcade.

I guess that's why it's on a 6 meg card.

[esteban]

Speaking of Darius, I've never really got into the overall series, but I aim to remedy that this summer!

[Tatsujin]

never play a darius outside the summer!